Amber Heard Requests Info on Johnny Depp’s Arrest and Substance Abuse Records

The ongoing legal battle between Amber Heard and ex-husband Johnny Depp continues to take place in the courtroom, with Heard’s lawyers seeking to dismiss a $50 million defamation lawsuit filed by Depp earlier this year. Now Heard’s legal team is requesting Depp turn over records pertaining to his various arrests and drug treatments, according to a new report from Variety. Depp’s team is refusing under claims that they are irrelevant and would be an invasion of his privacy. Heard filed a motion on Thursday, requesting a judge order Depp to turn over the records.

Heard’s attorney Roberta Kaplan, co-founder of the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund, issued a statement on the latest development.

“Ms. Heard has already testified that it was almost always drugs and alcohol that fueled Mr. Depp’s abusive behavior and this is consistent with multiple accounts of his drug-fueled rages over many years,” Kaplan said.

Heard filed for divorce from Depp in May 2016 after abuse allegations surfaced. Depp subsequently suffered from money issues and was reportedly dropped from Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, in which he starred in every installment thus far.

After Heard penned a column for the Washington Post in which she details the abuse she suffered, leaving out Depp’s name, Depp filed the $50 million defamation lawsuit that kicked off the current legal battle.

Depp’s team says the piece clearly referred to him, especially with statements including “I became a public figure representing domestic abuse,” but Heard’s legal team denies those assumptions.

“Mr. Depp reads it as stating sub silentio that he abused her in 2016,” the brief states. “That is incorrect. This is an op-ed about what happens to women who report men for domestic abuse and why society should react differently. Given that context, her claim about becoming a ‘public figure representing domestic abuse’ — and suffering ‘the full force of our culture’s wrath for women who speak out’ — is a statement about what she believes happened after she accused Mr. Depp of violence. It describes her opinions about the personal consequences, not the underlying merits, of her decision to report Mr. Depp.”