A WebMD profile that matches Dr Dawn Hughes's name and practice information was hit by a flood of negative reviews on Tuesday as she testified in Johnny Depp's civil defamation lawsuit against Amber Heard. All reviews were deleted from the page by Wednesday afternoon, according to NBC News.
She is a clinical and forensic psychologist who specializes in the treatment of complex trauma, interpersonal violence, sexual assault, and PTSD. She has extensive experience working with victims of childhood sexual abuse and is board certified as a forensic psychologist in the states of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut.
Her forensic work includes comprehensive psychological evaluations and attorney consultations. She has also provided expert witness testimony in a wide variety of judicial proceedings.
While she was testifying at the trial, fans of Depp's ex-wife and Depp himself flooded Twitter with negative comments against her. Some reportedly accused her of being “the reason men get abused and women get away with it,” while others attacked her for being biased.
Another review, since-deleted, criticized her for not believing that men can be victims of abuse. It read, "Extremely biased - guess she'll discredit victims just for money."
During cross-examination on Tuesday, the legal team asked her about her gender bias against men in man/woman DV cases. She responded by throwing in all the case examples she could think of in which she had testified on behalf of a male victim of domestic violence – including a boy who was sexually abused by a Boy Scout leader and a guy who was beaten in jail – yet couldn't come up with any example where she testified for a male who was abused by his female partner.
