Nearly three months after Amber Heard's split from Johnny Depp, the Justice League actress's domestic violence deposition has arrived.
Heard, 30, showed up at a Los Angeles law office on Saturday to complete the next step in her ongoing divorce battle. For reasons as yet unknown, she made her initial appearance an hour and a half later than the depo's scheduled 10 a.m. start time.
The deposition follows Heard's claims that Depp physically and emotionally abused her throughout their 15-month marriage, most often while drunk and inebriated. The deposition is Depp's team's opportunity to grill Heard under oath, and will be a major turning point in the case depending on the outcome.
According to TMZ, Depp's team attempted to reach a settlement with Heard late Friday night, which would have eradicated the need for the deposition. However, a settlement was never reached.
The deposition is set to span the whole day, even later now that it was delayed.
In order to grill Heard to the utmost, Depp and his lawyer Laura Wasser have brought in Blair Berk, a renowned court lawyer. It's her job to poke any possible holes into Heard's accusations.
Heard filed for divorce May 23 after 15 months of marriage, going on to accuse Depp of physical abuse and releasing photo and text evidence. She requested custody of one of their two dogs and $50,000 a month in temporary spousal support to cover lawyer fees and cost of living. She rejected Depp's counter-offer of $50,000/month for eight months in exchange for not a "domestic abuse" restraining order, but a "mutual" restraining order. Her decision to reject was apparently on the basis that she hadn't been the violent party, and that a mutual restraining order would be pointless, not to mention an obvious bid from Depp's camp to extend blame under public scrutiny.
Days later, the actress retracted her request for that temporary spousal support entirely, stating that she'd realized it was being "used against me to distract and divert the public away from the very serious real issue of domestic violence."
While the estranged couple's domestic violence hearing was originally scheduled for an earlier date, that hearing was been pushed to August 15 and 16 after a request from Depp's attorney Laura Wasser. Heard's deposition was subsequently scheduled to take place August 6.
Heard's temporary restraining order will be enforced until then.
