Johnny Depp’s injuries when his finger was severed in a blowout fight with Amber Heard in 2015 are “inconsistent” with the actor’s claims that he was cut off by an alcohol bottle being thrown at him, according to an orthopedist.
The first witness Monday in Depp’s defamation trial against Heard was Dr. Richard Moore, a North Carolina-based orthopedic surgeon who specializes in hand surgery. He said he became a hand specialist because it’s “really pretty, beautiful anatomy.”
dr Moore said he operated on finger injuries like Depp’s after his fight with Heard in Australia “hundreds of times” during his 25-year career.
During the alcohol and drug-fueled altercation in March 2015, Depp’s fingertips were cut off. Depp claims Heard did it when she threw a bottle of vodka at him. She claims he smashed it with a phone. The court has heard from witnesses who said Depp told them he cut it off himself, which he admitted in texts.
As an expert on Heard’s legal team, Dr. Moore said the idea that Depp’s finger was cut off with a bottle was “not consistent” with the evidence.
He said: “It doesn’t match what we’re seeing in the injury pattern described or the clinical photos.”
In court, Depp looked up and paid attention, shaking his head in disbelief.
The first witness of the day was Dr. Richard Moore, a North Carolina orthopedic surgeon who specializes in hand surgery
Day 20 of the libel trial between Amber Heard and Johnny Depp began Monday in Fairfax, Virginia
“She threw the big bottle and it was touching and breaking all over the place and I honestly didn’t feel the pain at all at first, I didn’t feel any pain,” Depp said
Amber Heard arrived in the courtroom on Monday with a smile and curly hair
Depp claims Heard chopped off his finger when she threw a bottle of vodka at him, but she claims he knocked it off with a phone
dr Moore said the back of the finger, that is, the back of the hand, was not injured.
Heard’s attorney, Benjamin Rottenborn, asked Dr. Moore asked if the back was the back of the hand, “like a shark’s dorsal fin,” and he agreed – Depp laughed out loud.
dr Moore said it didn’t appear the injury happened as Depp’s hand was flat on the bar, as he claimed.
He said: “If the bottle had hit the finger in that position, it would have hit the nail and the nail really didn’t hurt. That doesn’t tally with this injury pattern.
The jury was shown graphic photos of Depp’s injured finger and X-rays, which Dr. Moore showed several tiny bone fragments in the tip and a “comminuted fracture” associated with a crush injury.
Such crush injuries could be caused by a finger being caught in a sliding or car door.
dr Moore said the photos showed no injury to the fingernail and if the bottle had hit him there would be an injury there.
He said, “Anyone who’s got their finger caught in a car door usually bleeds under the bail, which creates this hematoma.”
When asked if Depp’s description of the incident “consistently” with photographic evidence, Dr. Moore.
Depp claimed the bottle “exploded” after hitting his hand, but Dr. Moore said the lack of glass injuries on his hand suggested it wasn’t.
He said the medical records he reviewed “documented the presence of broken glass and no other related injuries to the hand.”
dr Moore added, “This wound does not appear to be a sharp glass tear.”
Depp’s attorney, Camille Vasquez, has Dr. Assaulted Moore during cross-examination. It was the first time she had questioned a witness since her brutal cross-examination of Amber Heard, which made her a star lawyer.
Vasquez asked if it was “not quite right” that, as Dr. Moore had just testified, Depp’s hand was flat on the bar.
Depp has detailed the explosive fight he and Amber Heard had in Australia in March 2015, where the tip of his finger was severed when Heard allegedly threw a bottle of vodka at him
dr Moore said it didn’t appear the injury happened as Depp’s hand was flat on the bar, as he claimed
Depp’s attorney, Camille Vasquez, has Dr. Assaulted Moore during cross-examination. It was the first time she had questioned a witness since her brutal cross-examination of Amber Heard, which made her a star lawyer
Vasquez pressed Dr. Moore repeated, and he admitted that he couldn’t rule out that a car door caused the injury to Depp’s finger
dr Moore said Depp’s hand “rested on the edge” of the bar
Vasquez shot back that Depp said his fingers were hanging over the bar?
dr Moore tried to respond with Vasquez cutting him off and saying, ‘That’s not my question, Dr. Moore.’
She said: “Is it true that Mr Depp said his fingers were hanging over the bar?”
dr Moore said yes.
Vasquez asked Dr. Moore: “You can’t determine what object caused the injury to his finger?”
dr Moore said, “I can’t determine which object it was. I can say with confidence that the bottle’s mechanism as described was not consistent…’
Vasquez chimed in, saying, “I get that. My question is very specific” to reiterate the question.
dr Moore said: “It’s more of a non-specific answer. I cannot determine the exact object, but it is unlikely that it was obtained in the manner described.
Vasquez pressed Dr. Moore repeated, and he admitted that he couldn’t rule out that a car door caused the injury to Depp’s finger.
dr Moore said opening doors is the “classic cause” of this type of injury.
Vasquez said: “You can’t say definitively what caused the injury to Mr. Depp’s finger?”
as dr When Moore tried to answer, Vasquez intervened.
She said, “Dr. Moore. I understand that, but now is the time for me to ask you questions. Now let’s try my question. They cannot say definitively what caused the injury to Mr. Depp’s finger. Yes or no?’
dr Moore said, ‘No.’
Vasquez showed the jury photos of the bar area of the property Depp and Heard rented in Australia where the fight took place.
They showed a broken vodka bottle and a bloody handkerchief with drops of blood all over it.
dr Moore agreed that he had not considered the photos as part of his analysis.
Heard’s attorney, Benjamin Rottenborn, read some of Dr. Moore came back and said that Vasquez “interrupted” her before the jury could hear the rest.
Vasquez chimed in, “I don’t think that’s in the transcript.”
dr David Spiegel, an expert in behavioral sciences, specifically drug and alcohol use and intimate partner violence, commented on Monday
dr David Spiegel, an expert in behavioral sciences, specifically drug and alcohol use and intimate partner violence, commented on Monday.
He said Depp “exhibited conscious behavior with someone who has a substance use disorder.”
dr Spiegel said that its review of the evidence showed that Depp was a “perpetrator of intimate partner violence.”
dr Spiegel told the court he was “not here to indict Mr. Depp’s acting ability or his personality, he’s much better at it than I am.”
The doctor said he was there to talk about how drugs and alcohol can cause “bad things to happen” when people push their limits.
dr Spiegel reeled off the substances Depp abused: alcohol, amphetamines, marijuana, cocaine, LSD, ecstasy, opiates and others, often simultaneously.
He said Depp’s drug use caused significant damage to his memory, as demonstrated by his former therapist, who asked him to memorize three words and repeat them five minutes later.
dr Mirror said: “Mr. Depp couldn’t remember any of them, and that’s very unusual for a 50-year-old man.
“In general, this age group should remember two or all three of these words. I know his leads were also fed to him via earphones.
“Anyone of us who has used alcohol and cocaine to this extent – I’m talking severe extent – will have an impact.”
Some patients like Depp can mistakenly think illegal substances make them function better, which the actor has testified to.
But actually it caused damage and Depp needed his leads fed to him through an earpiece and made him pass out while drunk.
dr Spiegel said: “Part of that could be because he’s confessed to making a film completely wasted, so it would be harder to do that.
“You notice that the processing speed has dropped. If your thinking speed is slow – I’m talking about that slow when we try to move on to other questions – you’re still trying to process the original data sent to us.
“Fortunately, during this process, I see that Mr Depp’s perception has improved, so I commend him for that.”