Epic Expert Battles: Overpaid Mental Health Professionals Duking It Out in Depp v. Heard
A couple years after actors Johnny Depp and Amber Heard ended their tumultuous romantic relationship, The Washington Post published an op-ed authored by Heard in which she claimed to be the victim of intimate partner violence. In the 2018 article, Heard heavily implied that the perpetrator of the violence was Depp. The following year, Depp sued Heard for defamation in state court in Fairfax County, Virginia. Heard subsequently countersued Depp for defamation.
In May 2022, the highly publicized jury trial began. High-powered attorneys with apparently limitless budgets called a stream of witnesses - including celebrities and the actors themselves - to air or deny salacious allegations that captivated viewers across the globe. Both Depp and Heard claimed that mental illness played a role in their relationship, but they heavily disputed which of them suffered from mental illness and the type of mental illness. As a result, both parties engaged forensic psychiatrists and psychologists to testify as experts.
Dr. David Spiegel, a forensic psychiatrist, testified for Heard. He claimed that he had evaluated Depp based on media interviews and other collateral information. On cross-examination, Dr. Spiegel was almost comically rude and combative.
Cross-Examination of Dr. David Spiegel
- Did Depp's performance in movies affect your analysis of him? (24:19 - 25:11)
- Not an expert in acting (25:26 - 25:58)
Direct Examination of Dr. Richard Shaw (Rebuttal Witness)
Dr. Shaw testified for Depp's team that Dr. Spiegel acted unethically when he rendered an evaluation of Depp without meeting him.
- 0:01 - Voir dire / qualifications
- 6:57 - Work in this case / basis for opinion (6:57 - 8:26)
- 8:27 - Tendered as an expert in the field of psychiatry / qualified (no objection)
- 10:00 - Direct examination
- 10:29 - Opinion - Dr. Spiegel violated the ethical principles of the Goldwater Rule and Dr. Spiegel's opinions were unreliable and he had insufficient information... (objection at 11:20 - fast forward to 16:07 "you mentioned the Goldwater Rule" )
Depp's attorney cross-examines Dr. Dawn Hughes, who diagnosed Ms. Heard with PTSD "with an ideology of intimate partner violence she experienced with her former partner"
Cross examination of Dr. Shannon Curry
Heard's attorney cross-examines Dr. Shannon Curry, a psychologist called by Depp's team, on her motive (financial interest) and bias (dinner with Depp). Expertise limited to evaluating whether Heard had PTSD.
Heard's now infamous op-ed is still available online, but The Washington Post now includes the following Editor's Note:
Editor’s note, June 2, 2022: In 2019, Johnny Depp sued Amber Heard for defamation arising out of this 2018 op-ed. On June 1, 2022, following a trial in Fairfax County, Va. Circuit Court, a jury found Heard liable on three counts for the following statements, which Depp claimed were false and defamatory: (1) “I spoke up against sexual violence — and faced our culture’s wrath. That has to change.” (2) “Then two years ago, I became a public figure representing domestic abuse, and I felt the full force of our culture’s wrath for women who speak out.” (3) “I had the rare vantage point of seeing, in real time, how institutions protect men accused of abuse.” The jury separately found that Depp, through his lawyer Adam Waldman, defamed Heard in one of three counts in her countersuit.
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