Dr David Spiegel, who testified against Johnny Depp, says he has sustained 'emotional concussion'
Dr David Spiegel, the eccentric psychiatrist brought in by Amber Heard who testified that Johnny Depp displayed "narcissistic" traits, has now claimed he suffered an "emotional concussion" from the backlash he received.
In one of the most-discussed trials in recent times, a Virginia-based jury ruled in a unanimous decision that Heard, 36, defamed Depp, 58, when she called herself a victim of domestic abuse in a 2018 op-ed for The Washington Post. She was ordered to pay $15 million in damages, including $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages. The jury also awarded Heard compensatory damages of $2 million as she was defamed when Depp's lawyer Adam Waldman called her abuse allegations a hoax.
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Heard's lawyers summoned Spiegel, a psychiatrist and physician, to the witness stand on May 23 to make arguments favorable to her case. Attorney Elaine Bredehoft asked the doctor to comment on the psychology profile of those who suffered and perpetrated intimate partner violence or IPV and whether they were consistent with Depp's behavior towards Heard. “In my opinion – based on my review of the evidence, based on my clinical experience, based on my publishing experience, based on my teaching experience – that Mr. Depp has behaviors that are consistent with both someone who has a substance use disorder as well as behaviors of someone who is a perpetrator of intimate partner violence," Spiegel said at the time.
Since his sensational testimony, however, the psychiatrist allegedly faced an avalanche of criticism and ridicule from Depp fans. Spiegel recounted his experience in a Newsweek op-ed titled 'I Testified in the Heard vs. Depp Trial. The Backlash Has Been Horrific.' He wrote, "I drove to my hotel, and around an hour later, at about 4 pm, my wife called me and said, 'Listen, I don't want you to look at what's being said.' I asked her how horrific it was, and she told me it was pretty bad. I'm not a social media expert, far from it, so I didn't expect the whole horrific post-trial backflow. It's been a little stunning for me."
"The volume of it, from the personal attacks on who I am and what I present like, to what I look like and say, was obviously a little hurtful," Spiegel continued. "I deal with people for a living, so I tried to understand where people were coming from. It's what a psychiatrist does. But the comments below the YouTube videos of me have been vile."
During his testimony, Spiegel said he believes Depp’s “thinking rate” is down and that his attention and memory are impaired. And when asked if he thought Depp's substance abuse had affected his ability to act, Spiegel said he had "read" somewhere that Depp used an earpiece to be "fed lines" and that he did a movie "entirely wasted." The psychiatrist was heavily mocked for his comments as an expert witness in the case.
"I'm an adult, it's not the first time I've been criticized, but never like that," Spiegel complained. "On that Monday and Tuesday, I had what I'd describe as an emotional concussion. It wasn't physical, I didn't get hit on the head, it was emotional because the feedback afterward left me a little on the numb and dazed side. I slept a lot on Monday and Tuesday." He added, "I would have liked Mr. Depp to get ahead of this and to have said, 'Listen, I understand you are upset, but there are ways to express how to be upset.' The fact that he hasn't probably says potential volumes about him. Ms. Heard hasn't come out and said anything either, but my opinion is that she is the most vulnerable person in this situation."