Amber Heard has requested her ex-husband Johnny Depp to undergo a mental health examination to question his current mental state.
The Pirates of the Caribbean star is currently suing his ex-wife for defamation, after she wrote about being an alleged victim of domestic violence in an op-ed for the Washington Post in December 2018.
While Johnny’s name was excluded from the piece, his legal team have argued that the op-ed implied that he “perpetrated domestic violence against her”.
The case has been ongoing since early this year, and according to legal documents obtained by The Blast, Amber is now asking that a mental health professional be allowed to conduct an “Independent Mental Evaluation” or IME on Johnny.
In response, the actor’s legal team argued that the evaluation would be an intrusion of privacy, and that his current mental state has nothing to do with his lawsuit against Amber.
In court documents, they said: “This is a defamation case in which Mr. Depp does not allege that he suffers from any mental disorder or condition. Thus, Mr. Depp’s mental condition is not ‘in controversy’ nor does good cause exist under the rule for an IME of Mr. Depp.”
“It is preposterous notion that an IME now would shed light on Mr. Depp’s mental state at the time of Ms. Heard’s abuse hoax back in 2016. Ms. Heard’s effort treads a well-worn path of victim blaming using the pretext of mental health.”
They continued, “By Ms. Heard’s tortured credibility logic, current IME’s would also be warranted for all the dozens of eyewitnesses who have attested to the various facets of the hoaxes they witnessed years ago.”
Amber has asked for Johnny to undergo a mental evaluation as she believes his alleged drug and alcohol use, along with medications he is taking, contributed to his behaviour during their marriage.
Responding to Amber’s claims, Johnny’s lawyer Adam Waldman said: “Why does Amber Heard seek a mental health evaluation from a victim who has 32 eyewitness statements, 87 surveillance videos and a multitude of photographs showing beyond any doubt that Ms. Heard is a serially violent abuser who sought to cover and compound her crimes against Mr. Depp with a fraudulent hoax?”
“Mr. Depp’s current mental state has no bearing on the truth or falsity of the alleged incidents allegedly occurring years ago.”
“A present-day mental evaluation to prove the truth of incidents that allegedly occurred over three and a half years ago would be unavailing because the results of such an IME conducted now would not constitute reliable evidence of Mr. Depp’s mental state then,” he added.
Arguing that Johnny’s mental state is highly relevant, Amber’s attorney Roberta Kaplan said: “Mr. Depp’s well-documented history of drug and alcohol abuse, as well as his serious issues with anger and violence, raise legitimate questions about his mental state during the course of his relationship with our client, not to mention his ability to remember and truthfully recount what happened.”
“We hope that Mr. Depp will agree to be examined so that we can get to the truth and our client can put the abuse she experienced and continues to experience as a result of this lawsuit to an end.”
