Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 10, 1993 TAG: 9311100103
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: MANASSAS LENGTH: Medium
"I grabbed at myself and I jumped up. It hurt a lot," John Wayne Bobbitt said during his trial on a charge of marital sexual assault.
Bobbitt said he remembers initiating sex with his wife, Lorena, in the early morning of June 23 but doesn't remember if they concluded the sex act. He said Lorena Bobbitt was receptive.
Lorena Bobbitt has testified that John Bobbitt pinned her to the bed and attacked her. After he fell asleep, she said, "I lifted the sheets, and I cut it."
Lorena Bobbitt, 24, testified Monday that her husband frequently forced her to have sex. She said John Bobbitt sexually assaulted her June 18 - their fourth wedding anniversary - and again June 23.
John Bobbitt's lawyer, Gregory Murphy, asked John Bobbitt whether he ever forced sex on his wife.
"No, I did not," John Bobbitt, 26, said.
Minutes into his cross-examination, prosecutor Paul B. Ebert pulled a piece of paper from his file and demanded, "Isn't it true that you tormented your wife with a list of women you slept with?" Ebert said John Bobbitt read the list to his wife June 18.
John Bobbitt said he made the list but kept it to himself. "It was my own private copy. I didn't show that to her, ever," he said.
Lorena Bobbitt said in rebuttal testimony Tuesday that her husband read women's names from the list aloud "when he was raping me."
She testified Monday that her husband had told her forced sex excited him, but John Bobbitt denied Tuesday ever making such a statement.
Lorena Bobbitt faces her own trial Nov. 29 on a malicious wounding charge. Each spouse could be sentenced to 20 years in prison if convicted.
The alleged sexual attack and the penis severing have attracted international media attention and put a spotlight on men's and women's attitudes about sexual assault.
A Prince William County court counselor testified Tuesday that Lorena Bobbitt came to his office June 21 and asked about court protection from her husband.
"I basically told her I'm concerned for her safety, because of what she told me," Stephen Roque said. He said Lorena Bobbitt complained of physical and sexual abuse by her husband.
To get a court order protecting her, Lorena Bobbitt would have had to appear before a judge. Roque said she opted not to appear and said she would return later in the week. She never came back.
Robert Johnson, a friend of the Bobbitts who was staying with them at the time of the mutilation, described the night of drinking that preceded the incident.
He said John Bobbitt, who has held a variety of jobs, had consumed five beers and two mixed drinks during the evening before arriving home about 3 a.m.
Johnson, a defense witness, said that between 4 and 5 a.m., John Bobbitt awakened him, and he went into the bathroom. "I saw John's reflection in the mirror. I saw the blood. He said, `I've got to go to the hospital.' "
Murphy tried twice Tuesday to have the case dismissed. After Prince William County Circuit Judge LeRoy F. Millette released the jury for the day, Murphy listed about a dozen inconsistencies in the prosecution's case.
"The evidence just could not convict John Bobbitt beyond a reasonable doubt," Murphy said.
Millette agreed there is an issue of credibility but said, "We will let the jury decide." Earlier Tuesday, the judge rejected another dismissal motion.
Closing arguments are set to begin at 9 a.m. today.
After cutting off the penis, Lorena Bobbitt said she fled the couple's Manassas apartment, clutching the organ and the red-handled fillet knife. She said she realized she was still holding the organ midway between the apartment and the salon where she works as a manicurist.
"I screamed, and I threw it" out the car window, she said.
Police found it on a grassy corner. The organ was packed on ice and taken to Prince William Hospital, where it was reattached in a 9 1/2-hour operation.
Doctors say Bobbitt is recovering well, but that it will take up to two years before they know whether the nerves regenerate and he regains full sexual function.
Bobbitt was charged with marital sexual assault, not marital rape, because under Virginia law the latter charge only applies to couples living apart or if the victim is seriously physically injured.
The Bobbitts are seeking a divorce.
by CNB