A psychiatrist who testified for Amber Heard in her defamation case against ex-husband Johnny Depp has sparked outrage among followers. Since his testimony, fans have left hundreds of one-star and bad evaluations on Dr. David Spiegel’s WebMD and Google profiles, expressing their displeasure with his testimony concerning Johnny’s mental health. According to sources, the psychiatrist’s rating has dropped as a result of the flood of bad evaluations.
Related – ‘Real Life Doc Brown’: Amber Heard Psychiatrist David Spiegel Trolled By Johnny Depp Fans
A seven-person jury in Fairfax, Virginia, concluded that Heard had defamed her ex-husband in a Washington Post op-ed by alleging that she had been the victim of domestic abuse after a six-week grueling, emotional, and highly contradicting testimony. Depp was given $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages (however the judge eventually reduced Depp’s punitive damages to $350,000 according to Virginia law). One of Heard’s three defamation counterclaims for a comment made by Depp’s former lawyer was also approved by the jury, and she was given $2 million in compensatory damages.
Dr. David Spiegel is suffering horrific post-trial backflow after testifying in favor of Amber Heard
Dr. David Spiegel claimed that after he testified in favor of Amber Heard he has suffered “horrific post-trial backflow” owing to the negative reactions to his experience on the witness stand. He posted a first-person piece in Newsweek on Friday stating, “Never in my life have I been the target of such voluminous amounts of hate, ever. I will process the emotion, but it will always be there; the knowledge that I was on the receiving end of such venom.” After Johnny Depp’s fans review-bombed the site with unfavorable remarks, Spiegel said the internet backlash became so fierce that he was compelled to shut off comments on his WebMD page.
“My WebMD page has now been closed to comments, but if you looked at the site beforehand there were probably seven or eight reviews, and all of a sudden on Monday, May 23, and Tuesday, May 24 there were hundreds, so it was pretty obvious what had happened. I’m an adult, it’s not the first time I’ve been criticized, but never like that. 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 afterwards left me a little on the numb and dazed side.” Dr. David Spiegel
Depp’s behavior was “consistent with someone that both have substance use disorder as well as behaviors of someone who is a perpetrator of intimate partner violence,” according to Spiegel, who was appointed by Heard’s legal team. However, during cross-examination, Depp’s attorneys probed Spiegel about the fact that he had never assessed Depp and indicated that his evidence was a breach of the American Psychiatric Association’s Goldwater Rule, which prohibits psychiatrists from diagnosing persons who are not patients.
Source – Newsweek