Johnny Depp’s Legal Team Urges Amber Heard To Give Her Deposition; Request Actresses Phone Records

Amber Heard and Johnny Depp may not be on good terms, but the estranged spouses are said to have come close to reaching an agreement in their legal battle outside of court.

According to TMZ, Heard and Depp’s lawyers had discussed settling their impending restraining order case amongst themselves. The gossip site speculated that the settlement would involve both parties avoiding one another, without the red tape that accompanies an actual restraining order. TMZ also reported that Heard, 30, was seeking a whopping $50,000 in spousal support. The publication did not provide comment from Depp’s legal team about whether they planned to agree to that amount. Regardless, Heard’s negotiations with her estranged husband have been delayed due to lack of availability — or perhaps lack of cooperation — on her part.

TMZ reports that attorney Laura Wasser filed documents claiming that Heard had no availability before the restraining order trial, which is scheduled for Friday, June 17. Heard initially agreed to answer questions under oath in a deposition, but is now unsure how to work it into her schedule. Wasser stated that the deposition was initially scheduled for Friday, but those plans crumbled as the day grew closer. Wasser and the rest of Depp’s legal team are frustrated and want Heard to stop bashing her soon-to-be ex-husband in the media and face him in court. They have also requested that Heard’s phone records be released, as they claim text messages released by the actress detailing alleged abuses are doctored.

“[Amber] has tried her claims in the media. It is now time to do so in a court of law,” she said.

On Tuesday People magazine confirmed via tech expert Kevin Cohen that Heard’s text message exchange was “authentic.” The messages in question became public on June 1. They showed Heard and Depp’s assistant, Stephen Deuters, discussing a violent incident in which the “Alice Through the Looking Glass” actor reportedly kicked his estranged wife. Deuters told Heard that Depp, 53, did not remember the encounter and was “appalled” when he learned what he’d done. Cohen said he had examined the iPhone backups of Heard and determined that the conversation had taken place.

“On Sunday, June 5, 2016, I was asked to examine iPhone backups of Amber Heard. It was her normal routine to sync her iPhone on the computer,” Cohen told People. “I forensically imaged and examined the device containing Ms. Heard’s iPhone backups and I conclude that the backups are authentic.”

Despite Cohen’s claims that the messages are legitimate, TMZ later reported that Deuters denied his part in the conversation. He alleged that Heard had doctored the image, adding that the physical altercation being described never occurred. Heard, however, stated that this was just one of many attacks she endured during their marriage.