Johnny Depp Trial Hears About the Day Amber Heard Changed the Locks to Their Apartment

Johnny Depp’s childhood friend, artist Isaac Baruch revealed that he found Amber Heard changing the locks of the penthouse. Heard shared the Los Angeles penthouse with Depp.

For the ninth day of Depp’s libel claim against The Sun’s publishers, Baruch gave evidence via video link. The trial is taking place at London’s Royal Courts of Justice. Depp is suing the newspaper’s publishers and Dan Wooton. The journalist posted an article claiming Depp was a wife-beater. Depp has denied all claims of being violent with his ex-wife Heard.

Baruch used to live in Depp’s penthouse rent-free. He claims Depp paid for him including a few of Heard’s friends. Baruch used to live there between 2013 and 2016. His penthouse was located on the same floor that Heard and Depp used to stay in.

Depp had given Baruch $100,000 to borrow which he still has to return. Baruch claims that Depp is generous with everybody. He told the court that he is a true and honest man and always knows to do the right thing.

Heard’s friends lived in neighboring apartments, also owned by Depp, including Raquel “Rocky” Pennington and her then-fiancee Josh Drew.

Sasha Wass QC, barrister of The Sun asked Baruch if they all lived like a family. Baruch agreed saying it was like friends, a family enjoying what Depp was funding for. He revealed that he witnessed Heard and her friends changing the locks of the apartment on May 21, 2016. By this time Heard’s marriage with Depp was collapsing.

Baruch Witnessed No Bruises on Heard

Baruch described Heard’s demeanor as animated and in control. He asked her what was going on and she said Depp had been violent because of which she was changing the locks. Heard was changing the locks to penthouse 1, 3, and 5. She also introduced Baruch to a private security guard and said he would be around.

Baruch was confused and asked what had happened and Josh Drew took him aside to tell him the alleged attack. He said he saw no marks or bruises on Heard and asked her about it. Baruch said, “She told me that he hit her in the face and threw a phone at her. I then asked her where he had hit her, and she stretched her neck and pushed out the right side of her head for me to look at her right eye.”

Baruch said he did not see any marks on Heard. She was standing in broad sunlight without any makeup on. He said, “Her face looked to me just as natural and normal as all the other times I’ve seen it over the past three years while hanging out together around the apartments.”

He further said that he spotted Heard over the next few days and spotted no injuries. But Heard went to court sporting injuries which she claimed that Depp had given her.

The concluding witness of the day, MeToo campaigner, Katherine Kendall, told the court that calling out Harvey Weinstein was “one of the scariest, most difficult things I have ever done”. Further in her witness statement, she said an “extremely persistent” journalist from The Sun called Zoe, reached out to her. Kendall claimed Zoe had “stalked” her. She said she only spoke to her “out of politeness”.

Kendall revealed that, after reading the April 2018 article, “I immediately understood that The Sun’s purpose was to present the appearance of a #MeToo backlash”. Heard is due to be called as the first defense witness on Monday. She is expected to give testimony for three days at the Royal Courts of Justice in London.

Justice Nicol is also anticipated to hear an appeal by NGN’s lawyers to call expert evidence. He will reveal whether images displaying injuries to Heard have been “manipulated or edited” in any way.

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