Hicksville Trailer Palace
Also: the Hicksville trip, Joshua Tree trailers
Intro
Hicksville Trailer Palace is an artist-retreat-origin vintage-trailer property in Joshua Tree, California, created in 2009 by Morgan Night and operated by him until 2020. Depp, Heard, and a group of Heard's friends — including Raquel Pennington and Kristina Sexton — went there in late May 2013 for Heard's birthday. What happened during that one night was litigated from four angles. Heard testified that after a campfire argument in which Depp grabbed another woman's wrist, she and Depp withdrew to their trailer, where he smashed furniture, accused her of hiding cocaine, ripped her dress, and conducted a forced body-cavity search — the enrichment pipeline flagged this as the most serious individual assault allegation in the case. Pennington described the disarray she found in the trailer the next morning but acknowledged her account of the interior was secondhand from Heard. Sexton heard the overnight fighting and, the next morning, Depp directing his bodyguards to "pay it off." In rebuttal, Night himself — a late-disclosed witness admitted over defense objection — testified the only documented damage was a single broken light fixture, billed at $62.
Key Moments (22)
Rottenborn systematically establishes that McGivern was not present at the Boston-to-LA flight (May 2014), Hicksville Trailer Palace (2013), the Bahamas (August 2014 and December 2015), Tokyo (January 2015), the Eastern Columbia Building on December 15, 2015, or the May 21, 2016 penthouse incident.
Day 12 · Cross of Travis McGivern
Hughes details the specific violence reported by Heard: physical violence including pushing, slapping, choking, and kicking; extensive coercive control over Heard's acting career, wardrobe, and personal contacts; and multiple incidents of sexual violence including the Australia bottle penetration, the Hicksville 'cavity search,' and a Bahamas closet assault.
Day 13 · Direct of Dawn Hughes
Heard describes the Hicksville trailer park outing (May 2013): Depp grabbed another woman's wrist at the campfire, then in the trailer smashed furniture and accused Heard of hiding cocaine on her person. She testifies he ripped her dress, removed her underwear, and performed a non-consensual digital cavity search.
Day 14 · Direct of Amber Heard
Pennington acknowledges seeing Heard use cocaine fewer than five times and doing cocaine with her, though not during the Depp relationship. She also confirms seeing Heard use mushrooms approximately three times while Heard was with Depp, including at two Coachellas and possibly Hicksville.
Day 17 · Direct of Raquel Pennington
Pennington describes the Hicksville trip: seated 6–10 feet from Depp at the campfire, she heard him tell Kelly Sue Milano to 'get off my woman.' She confirms this verbal outburst was the entirety of the 'angry and aggressive' conduct she personally observed — she did not see or hear anything more from Depp that evening.
Day 17 · Direct of Raquel Pennington
Vasquez establishes that Pennington did not personally witness the 'rage' in the Hicksville trailer, did not hear yelling, and saw only the aftermath the next morning: light fixtures knocked off and general disarray. Her knowledge of what happened inside comes solely from what Heard told her.
Day 17 · Direct of Raquel Pennington
Pennington describes the Hicksville campfire incident and the disarray she found in the trailer the next morning — knocked-off light fixtures, strewn cushions — attributing it to Depp's behavior. She denies ever knowing Heard to destroy property or threaten anyone's life.
Day 18 · Cross of Raquel Pennington
Sexton recounts a Hicksville birthday trip where overnight fighting was audible. The next morning she found the trailer in shambles, Depp apologizing and directing his bodyguards to 'pay it off.' Sexton recalls Depp saying at various times, 'I'm sorry I turned into a monster.'
Day 18 · Direct of Kristina Sexton
Night admits he watched one clip approximately five weeks prior, after a friend texted that Hicksville was mentioned. He recalls it involved a security guard testifying about Hicksville and something about a wrist.
Day 21 · Voir Dire of Morgan Night
Night clarifies he did not reach out to the attorneys himself. Former Hicksville innkeepers, who felt something depicted was untrue, contacted the attorneys and passed Night's phone number along.
Day 21 · Voir Dire of Morgan Night
Night confirms he has watched no other trial coverage since being contacted; the attorney instructed him to avoid all such content regardless of whether it related to Hicksville.
Day 21 · Voir Dire of Morgan Night
Night explains how former Hicksville innkeepers Jenna and Kristi — who had worked the same night — remembered he was present and passed his number to Depp's attorneys without any prior conversation with him about the case.
Day 21 · Voir Dire of Morgan Night
Bredehoft elicits that two weeks before attorney contact Night conducted a Twitter search for 'Hicksville trailer,' found approximately five or six tweets, and read claims about an incident at the fire pit.
Day 21 · Voir Dire of Morgan Night
Bredehoft argues late disclosure: Night was known as a potential witness since May 3 but not identified until May 22, and had searched social media about Hicksville, suggesting he shaped his testimony around trial evidence.
Day 21 · Colloquy
Bredehoft argues prejudice: the defense had no opportunity to depose Night or prepare a counter-rebuttal, and a prior court order on Hicksville damage receipts had yielded nothing from plaintiffs.
Day 21 · Colloquy
Night introduces himself as the creator and former owner of Hicksville Trailer Palace (2009–2020) and Hicksville Pines Bud and Breakfast, describing the property's origins as an artist retreat. He notes a single prior, brief meeting with Depp at the Viper Room in the late 1990s and no prior contact with Heard.
Day 21 · Direct of Morgan Night
Bredehoft introduces Night's April 21 tweet to That Umbrella Guy — posted the day Depp testified about Hicksville — as Defendant's Exhibit 1903. A sidebar resolves a dispute over redaction; the exhibit is admitted with partial redaction.
Day 21 · Cross of Morgan Night
Bredehoft elicits that Night's 1999 film Matters of Consequence employed Lori Anne Allison — Depp's first wife — as a makeup artist, suggesting a personal connection to Depp's circle predating the Hicksville visit.
Day 21 · Cross of Morgan Night
Bredehoft presses the Waldman–Umbrella Guy connection; Night dismisses it as sounding like schizophrenia. She then surfaces a vulgar tweet Night wrote about Elon Musk four days after the Hicksville tweet, admitted over a relevance objection.
Day 21 · Cross of Morgan Night
TMZ and Hicksville trailer damage testimony permitted as rebuttal-case topics tied to Heard's counterclaim damages.
Day 23 · Colloquy
Vasquez impeaches Heard's Hicksville account using Morgan Night's testimony — that only a light fixture was broken and Night was charged Depp $62 for it — directly contradicting Heard's claim that Depp trashed the trailer. Heard responds that Night was not present for the relevant events, which Vasquez counters by noting Night testified he was there.
Day 23 · Cross of Amber Heard
Vasquez closes with a rhetorical series of 'you didn't expect' challenges — Kate Moss testifying the staircase push never happened, Morgan Night contradicting the Hicksville account, Morgan Tremaine appearing on the TMZ courthouse tip-off, Ben King's fingertip testimony, and Isaac Baruch weeping. Heard responds that she expected many witnesses to come forward in Depp's favor and frames the op-ed as a response to his power over people.
Day 23 · Cross of Amber Heard
Quotes From The Record (7)
“just shoves his fingers inside me. I just - just stood there staring at the stupid light.”
— Amber Heard
Heard's description of the alleged sexual assault at Hicksville — the most serious individual allegation in this proceeding.
“The first Coachella that we went to, a second Coachella that we went to, and maybe at Hicksville. I can't be sure about that”
— Raquel Pennington
Specifies occasions when Pennington observed Heard use mushrooms while Heard was in a relationship with Depp, establishing a pattern of drug use during that period.
“Stuff off the counters, cushions thrown around, things strewn about the floor.”
— Raquel Pennington
Pennington's description of the Hicksville trailer aftermath corroborates general disarray but is bounded by secondhand knowledge — she did not see Depp cause the damage.
“I believe it was somebody testifying about — I think it was the security guard testifying, maybe, about Hicksville, or I forget exactly who was testifying. But it was something where Hicksville was mentioned, and it was about — something about a wrist or something about that.”
— Morgan Night
Establishes the specific clip Night viewed and its subject matter — security guard testimony about Hicksville and a wrist injury — giving the defense a basis to probe any bias formed before his testimony.
“The innkeepers that worked at Hicksville before, reached out to them and said we saw some stuff that wasn't true and then they asked, is it okay if I give the attorneys your phone number, so the attorneys reached out to me.”
— Morgan Night
Explains the contact chain that brought Night to testify: former innkeepers flagged disputed facts to Depp's team and facilitated the introduction, shaping the context of his expected testimony.
“She instructed me not to watch anything about it, regardless of if it was about Hicksville or not, so I've been keeping off the Internet and turning off anything that seems to be like it's on social media.”
— Morgan Night
Demonstrates Night's compliance with attorney guidance to avoid further exposure, relevant to the court's assessment of whether his testimony remains uncontaminated.
“What they're objecting to is he's going to tell the truth and the truth is inconsistent with what Ms. Heard has said.”
— Benjamin Chew
Chew reframes the disclosure dispute as a defense effort to exclude testimony harmful to Heard's account of the Hicksville incident.
Witnesses Whose Testimony Touched Here (9)
Evidence Tied Here (2)
Defendant's 1903 — Twitter exchange between That Umbrella Guy and Morgan Night
Twitter exchange between That Umbrella Guy and Morgan Night on April 21, 2022, in which Night replied that the Hicksville incident 'never happened' and characterized Heard as 'acting all jealous and…
Catalog entry →Twitter posts found by Night via a keyword search for 'Hicksville trailer,' incl
Twitter posts found by Night via a keyword search for 'Hicksville trailer,' including one claiming Depp yelled at and grabbed Heard by the fire pit, and Night's reply denying the account.
Catalog entry →