As Amber Heard prepares to appeal the verdict in her defamation case against ex-husband Johnny Depp, the actress is also facing a perjury investigation in Australia.
A case related to the 2015 illegal importation of Heard’s Yorkshire terriers, Pistol and Boo, was deemed closed after the Aquaman actress pleaded guilty in 2016 to a lesser charge of falsifying immigration documents during a trip to Queensland with then-husband Johnny Depp for the taping of the fifth film in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise.
Heard’s lawyer, Jeremy Kirk, argued there was “no attempt to deceive” but that the actress had mistakenly thought Depp’s staff had completed the necessary paperwork for the dogs when she marked the wrong box on her incoming passenger card, according to the Daily Mail.
With Depp by her side, Heard issued an apology and said “protecting Australia is important.”
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However, the Australian Department of Agriculture, Water, and the Environment has now revealed that the case is still “ongoing,” saying it is “investigating allegations of perjury by Ms. Heard during court proceedings for the 2015 illegal importation of [her] two dogs into Australia,” according to Entertainment Tonight.
The investigation stems from testimony during Depp’s 2020 libel case against the Sun newspaper in the United Kingdom. One of Depp’s former employees, Kevin Murphy, testified that Heard told him to lie about the dogs being flown into Queensland on a private jet without being declared despite him warning her of Australia’s rules regarding animal entry.
‘When I expressed that I was extremely uncomfortable with this, Ms. Heard said to me, ‘Well I want your help on this …I wouldn’t want you to have a problem with your job,’” Murphy said. “It became very apparent that Ms. Heard was threatening my job stability unless I cooperated with providing a declaration that supported her false account for the Australian proceedings.”
The news of the perjury investigation comes a little more than one month after a jury in Fairfax, Virginia, found that Heard defamed Depp in a 2018 op-ed. The jury also found that Depp defamed Heard regarding a statement made by his former lawyer, Adam Waldman.
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On June 24, Judge Penney Azcarate reportedly said the actress would have to file the suspension bond of $8.35 million required by the judgment before beginning the process of appealing. Heard’s legal team on Friday filed a post-trial motion arguing that the case should either be overturned, dismissed, or move to a new trial because $10 million award to Depp was not justified by the evidence, according to Courthouse News Service.
