One can feel a little empathy for Amanda De Cadanet; the benefit of the doubt being that she didn’t set out to do harm to Johnny Depp. A survivor herself, De Cadanet was bound to believe another woman, a friend indeed and who’s sympathy would be so easily garnered.
She has also been frank about why she’s jumped ship, which is more than can be said for other hoax assisting friends who are trying to worm their way out of bearing witness in Heard’s defence.
She was duped! Not only that, but when she confronted Heard about the audio recordings, she was met with denial by way of mitigation. It was Johnny’s team wot did it!
But let’s not let her off that lightly. Many people pleaded with her to look at the evidence and his side of the story. At that point she had a choice and she chose to drown out the noise and double down by writing saccharine op eds about her poor forsaken friend. It was another case of cashing in on the drama and by definition exploiting the situation at Depp’s expense.
De Cadanet is the latest to jump, closely preceded by the #metoo lawyer Roberta Kaplan who was representing her in the upcoming Virginia defamation case. This is another interesting departure.
Very, very strange indeed! Who knew that a top lawyer and her team would drop such a sure bet of a case because of … travel expenses? Really? Since when has the cost of a few internal flights and hotel rooms proven to be financially prohibitive on lawyer fees? Well, maybe since they’ve realised their client is a big fat loser.
This bombshell has only served to add weight to the validity of Depp’s libel case against NGN, because De Cadanet was one of the few material witnesses who was so vocal about it.
The odd thing about her assertion of abuse here is that she claims to be a witness to events and explains away the injuries at her party, but in her retraction, she states that it was about believing Heard’s version of events.
So what did she really witness? Injuries? Fake injuries? No injuries at all? Let us not forget she was in the elevator along with an injury free Heard and hoaxing rats, Meli make it all up and Witney the silent witness, two days before Heard turned up at court sporting ‘that’ bruise.
Genuine or not, her retraction is huge! Maybe she doubts what she witnessed, or maybe she lied through her pearly whites. Who cares any longer, she’s out and it’s another nail in the coffin for NGN!
We’re now one day away from proceedings at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, so let’s take a look at what’s occurred since the lockdown in March…
If you want to be reminded of the pre-trial disclosure review held on the 26th February and for which judgement was given out on the 6th March, read the article below:
https://deppradarrum.home.blog/2020/03/06/depp-v-news-group-wootton/
We must be thankful for those recordings; even if distressing to listen to, they have provided a pivotal moment in this case, the moment that many who previously took Heard’s claims as genuine and wrote Depp off as an abuser, realised the error in their judgement. They also provide weight to Depp’s insistence that she was the aggressor in the relationship and any physical violence on his part was an act of self defence.
20th March 2020: adjournment of the trial date
No explanation needed for this and the social distancing measures that have necessitated an increased duration from an estimated 10 days to 15 days.
4th April: judge awards Heard the right for testimony to be held in private
It has long been the contention amongst Depp’s supporters that if the abuse accusations weren’t going to be enough, she’d pull an even darker beast out of the bag: sexual violence!
His lawyer was quick to respond with the fact that she’s never had an issue going public about any of it for the last four years, so why start now?
But even if we all knew this as merely another of her tactics to maximise damage, the judge has to make his decisions based on the merit of what the witness claims without prejudice: this is the law!
18th April: Waldman is the word on Twitter!
Yes, we know it’s not really related to the court case, but Adam Waldman’s sudden and unexpected appearance in the twitter fandom was very welcome and he has since provided all with entertainment and important information pertaining to both cases, so it’s a landmark event worthy of note.
13th May: witness statements of Vanessa Paradis, Winona Ryder, David Killackey and Kate James
Depp’s team submitted a late application for all the above to be added as witnesses on the 7th March. Although technically a breach, the application was only a day late, so Nicols waived any sanctions.
NGN consented to the witness statements of Paradis and Ryder, so the judge didn’t need to make a decision on those and agreed they be added to the witness list. They will be written statements only and will not be attending the trial.
However, the latter two proved to be more tricky …
David Killackey is a mechanic who worked on the TV series ‘Overhaulin’. In 2014 Depp had Heard’s 1968 Mustang feature on the programme. As an aside, if any reader hasn’t seen this episode it’s worth a watch to get a real feel for the dynamics between them when they were a couple. Her behaviour was rather telling when it comes to who was the controlling party in the relationship. This of course is why Depp’s team wanted his testimony. Heard claims that Depp was the controlling one and one of the manifestations was to keep her away from her beloved car. Killackey disputes this by way of stating that Heard was in the driving seat (yes I know) the whole time he did any work on the car, which was over a period from 2014 to 2016 and after they’d separated.
Unfortunately Nicols didn’t think his statement bore enough relevance, so he dismissed it.
Kate James was Heard’s personal assistant for three years until she was dismissed. Her statement claims three important things:
Over the years she saw her in varying states of undress and never saw any injuries.
She witnessed their relationship and contrary to Heard’s version of events, she never witnessed Depp being aggressive or controlling. On the contrary, she describes him as being kind.
Heard has claimed to consume only a limited amount of alcohol. James paints a different picture and also describes Heard’s use of drugs. She also evidences her propensity to lie by highlighting two incidents: the false immigration status of Savannah McMillan and the smuggling of the dogs into Australia.
These were all deemed relevant to the case and have been allowed but all other claims in her statement were deemed irrelevant / disproportionate to the case. James’s is statement only so will not be attending court.
15th June: Melanie Inglessis’s motion quash subpoena, aka to get let off the perjurers hook!
Melanie Inglessis is yet another hoaxing assistant who tried to wriggle out of testifying but failed.
Wait! This make up artist claims to have seen Heard’s injuries and helped hide them before the James Corden show, so she’s a material witness and she tries to quash her subpoena due to ‘travel restrictions’? What is it about using travel as an excuse in these times — we have the technology!
She has also claimed that NGN’s assertions as to what she knew were inaccurate, yet they got their assertions from a previous declaration — that she wrote! So, was the declaration inaccurate? Could it be that she, erm, lied?
Bear in mind this is the same Meli who was seen in that elevator that day alongside De Cadanet and co. Lest we not forget …
25th June: the drug texts and the attempt to dismiss
The vain attempt by NGN to get the case dismissed was a tense few days! Their submission was based on the fact that Depp’s legal team failed to disclose some texts between him and one of his PAs, with Depp quite clearly pushing for him to buy some drugs. Depp has never denied taking drugs, so this wasn’t an attempt by him to play hide and seek with the truth. It was a legal team error, but it was also a breach and it could have lost him the case. Fortunately Judge Nicols saw sense and issued the judgement to continue to trial on 2nd July, the wait by all was with bated breath that’s for sure!
Also decided: Heard attending court before giving testimony
Depp’s team tried to, understandably, have Heard barred from attending the court in person until she is called to give testimony. This is for obvious reasons, bearing in mind that he is accusing her of being the abuser and has said he never wanted her to look into his eyes again, so it would be a very stressful experience and also, if he were this monster abuser that she made him out to be, why would she want to sit in the room listening to him and be reliving it all again?
Sadly the judge has not seen it that way and has dismissed this application, so she is free to attend and intimidate Depp as much as she wishes, provided she gets there early enough as it’s 1st come 1st serve and she better NOT get any preferential treatment or there’ll be hell to pay!
And Finally …
We have the witness list for both sides:
Depp:
NGN:
The Virginia case has been delayed until early 2021, so we will look at that after this case concludes and analyse how the judgement reflects Depp’s position going forward.
This author will be covering the UK court case as it happens on this blog … watch this space …
