Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, November 13, 1993 TAG: 9311130160
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Prosecutors and defense lawyers agree that Lorena Bobbitt was not a strong witness at her husband's trial on charges of marital sexual abuse, which focused international media attention on the Manassas courthouse.
Her testimony this week was halting and tearful, and she was unable to persuade a jury that her husband had raped her before she pulled back the bed sheets and sliced off his penis June 23. The two have since filed for divorce.
"If she was my client, I would be begging for a misdemeanor plea," said Susan Fain, who teaches law at American University in Washington, D.C. "I would not be very happy about the prospect of putting her before a jury."
In the unusual back-to-back felony trials - where the alleged victim in one becomes the accused in the next - Lorena Bobbitt, who was the state's star witness against her husband, will be a defendant in 16 days. If convicted, she faces up to 20 years in prison on charges of malicious wounding.
Equally unusual is the fact that Prince William County Commonwealth's Attorney Paul B. Ebert, who prosecuted John Bobbitt, will prosecute Lorena Bobbitt.
Although Lorena Bobbitt, 24, who returned to her job as a manicurist Thursday, faces an uncertain legal future, John Bobbitt, 26, a former bar bouncer, appeared headed for media stardom. His lawyer, Greg Murphy, did a series of early morning talk shows. And Paul Erickson, his media attorney, said that less than 20 hours after his client's acquittal, 63 reporters and entertainment companies had called wanting the ex-Marine's story.
John Bobbitt is scheduled to join radio personality Howard Stern on Nov. 22 for a nationwide show to raise funds to cover his medical and other expenses, Erickson said. Bobbitt has thousands of dollars in bills after a 9 1/2-hour operation in which two surgeons reattached his penis.
The organ had been retrieved from a field where his wife had tossed it as she fled the couple's Manassas apartment.
Erickson said the acquittal and the fact that John Bobbitt never told his story until he appeared on the stand Tuesday have "maximized his earning potential."
Lorena Bobbitt already had granted interviews for ABC's 20/20 and for Vanity Fair magazine. No one from her publicity firm, California-based Paradise Entertainment, responded to phone calls and messages this week.
A tearful Lorena Bobbitt waved off a reporter at her job saying, "No comment."
She immigrated here from Venezuela seven years ago. If convicted of malicious wounding, a felony, she could face deportation because she is not a citizen, immigration officials said.
James Lowe, her defense attorney, declined to discuss the idea of a plea bargain, and he played down the effect of John Bobbitt's acquittal on his client's future.
He said he will argue in her defense that years of abuse drove her to temporary insanity - her mental state when she mutilated her husband.
"Based on media reports, the jury [in John Bobbitt's trial] was concerned with a lack of corroboration," Lowe said. "As to the issue of long-term, egregious spousal abuse, there will be so much corroboration, you'll be bored to tears hearing it."
Unlike this week's trial, in which John Bobbitt denied he had raped his wife, there is no dispute about the act that led to charges against Lorena Bobbitt. She has told authorities that she "pulled back the sheets" and cut off her sleeping husband's penis.
The next trial will focus on whether Lorena Bobbitt used the knife with malice, as prosecutors allege, or because she had an irresistible impulse triggered by temporary insanity, as Lowe argues. The trial will rely heavily on testimony from psychiatrists on both sides, Lowe said Thursday.
Lorena Bobbitt agreed Friday to see a doctor from a state mental hospital before her scheduled Nov. 29 trial. The psychiatric exam could delay the trial, because both sides will need time to evaluate results, a court official said. No date for the exam was set.
Associated Press contributed to this story.
by CNB