Amber Heard Could Face Jail Time Pending Police Perjury Probe

Actress Amber Heard could potentially face time behind bars if she is convicted of perjury.

These perjury claims have nothing to do with her allegations of physical, emotional, sexual, and psychological abuse by her ex-husband Johnny Depp.

The couple has been facing each other at the Fairfax County Circuit Court for most of the past month. The “Pirates of the Caribbean” actor is suing his ex-wife for $50 million over a December 2018 op-ed Heard wrote for the Washington Post where she claims that she is a domestic violence survivor.

Although she did not mention Depp by name, he claims that he has lost movie roles due to the “clear implication” that he was her abuser. Heard claims that she has also been losing out on movie roles, including several scenes from the upcoming “Aquaman” sequel, and is countersuing for $100 million dollars.

In 2018, Heard appeared on a Dutch talk show called RTL Late Night, where she opened up about her divorce from Depp. When she discussed her divorce settlement, she said that out of the $7 million that was donated, she split half of it between the ACLU and the Children's Hospital of Los Angeles.

In Depp's 2020 libel case against British tabloid The Sun, Heard testified that she had donated the entire settlement to charity. However, on Monday, May 16, Heard seemed to change her story when she took the stand in her defamation trial against Depp. She said that she was not able to pay the donation to the ACLU because of financial trouble and said that she could not donate the money now due to the defamation suit Depp brought against her.

According to Daily Mail, legal experts believe that Heard could face a police probe into perjury charges. If it is investigated and Heard is convicted, she could face up to seven years behind bars due to the contradicting statements about her divorce donations.

A partner at law firm Hodge, Jones, and Allen, Sean Caulfield, spoke to the Daily Mail about Heard's potential perjury charges. When asked if he thought it was possible that police would investigate Heard's possible perjury, he replied, "Yes, I think so."

He noted that, although it was not a "central issue" to the defamation case, which focused on Heard's abuse claims, he called perjury "the single biggest threat and cuts to the core of our justice system, so the police may be invited to investigate to show that any member of the public who lies to the court can be prosecuted for perjury."

However, legal expert Mark Stephens has a different opinion. He told the Daily Mail that it is "notoriously difficult to bring and prosecute a perjury case." He continued, "You have to show that someone deliberately told an untruth as opposed to them being confused or misremembering. I think it would be a very difficult thing to do."

"Police could investigate it, but they probably would not prosecute it," he added. "The case is not about what she spent her money on, but what took place during their relationship."

He mentioned that Heard likely does not run her accounts and is managed by a team, so it's possible that she did not even know that she had not made the donations.

There have been other questions about Heard's story even before she took the stand. According to NBC News, make-up brand Milani called out Amber Heard back in late April.

During opening statements, Heard's lawyer, Ben Rottenborn, showed Milani's "All In One Correcting Kit" to the jury and claimed that Heard used the product in order to cover up bruises that Depp allegedly gave her during their tumultuous relationship.

"This was what she used," Rottenborn alleged in his opening statement. "She became very adept at it. You’re going to hear the testimony from Amber about how she had to mix the different colors for the different days of the bruises as they developed in the different coloring and how she would use these to touch those up to be able to cover those."

However, the makeup brand was quick to speak up against the allegations and said that the product was not even available in 2016 when Heard filed for a domestic violence restraining order against Depp or filed for divorce.

In a statement, a spokesperson for the company said, "Milani Cosmetics can confirm that the palette in question — the Milani Cosmetics Conceal + Perfect All-in-One Correcting Kit — did not launch until December 2017. Our video was to verify the claim that our eagle-eyed and loyal fanbase made about the product named in the trial."

Milani added that is "not taking a formal stance on the trial, evidence, or future outcome of the case."