Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, July 31, 1993 TAG: 9307310122
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Lorena L. Bobbitt said that on the morning of June 21, after seeking a court order to keep her husband away because he was abusing her, she "was told the papers would be typed and ready for my signature in two days, on Wednesday the 23rd." That was the same day that she says her husband raped her and that she allegedly severed his penis.
But Stephen Roque, a counselor with the county's Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court, said that the paperwork would have been ready for her signature June 21 and that an appearance before a judge could have been scheduled for that afternoon. Instead, Bobbitt said she had to leave to meet a friend for lunch, Roque said Friday.
"I told her if she couldn't come back today, then she could come back tomorrow, and she said she couldn't come back the next day for whatever reason, but that she could come back on Wednesday," Roque said. "I asked, `Aren't you concerned about your safety?' And she said no, and that there was a friend in the house with her husband and she didn't think there was going to be a problem."
She never signed the official spousal-abuse petition and never appeared in court, authorities said.
James Lowe, Bobbitt's attorney, denied Friday that his client chose not to wait to get the order immediately.
"The people in Prince William are taking the position that she didn't have time to wait for it, which is not an accurate statement," Lowe said. "They said come back on Wednesday, sign it, and it'll be ready then."
Lowe said he was not blaming court workers for the incident, which resulted in his client's being charged with the malicious wounding of her husband, John Wayne Bobbitt. Doctors reattached his penis during 9 1/2 hours of surgery at Prince William Hospital.
The woman has told police that her husband and a male friend returned to the couple's apartment about 3 a.m. after a night out, and that while the friend slept on the couch, her husband raped her.
Friday, in a statement provided by Paradise Entertainment Corp., of Culver City, Calif. - which is providing "exclusive media representation" for the 24-year-old native of Venezuela - Lorena Bobbitt said she did not leave her husband earlier because she was committed to the marriage.
The statement said Lorena Bobbitt became "desperate" in June when her husband allegedly told her that "if I try to leave, he would follow me and force me to have sex with him any time he wanted."
It was then, she said, that she sought a restraining order.
After the alleged rape, Lorena Bobbitt said in the statement, she felt "devastated and humiliated . . . Everyone has a limit, and this was beyond mine." She said much of what happened after the rape "is a blur." But police say she cut off her husband's penis, left the couple's apartment in a panic and threw the penis out the car window. Later she told authorities where to find it.
John Bobbitt, 26, denied his wife's allegations of rape earlier this month, calling them "desperate excuses." Paul Erickson, his media representative, could not be reached Friday for comment.
Memo: shorter version ran in the Metro edition.