Bobbitt denies striking his wife
NATIONAL
On Day - of Bobbin II. Bob
bin l)emus Striking Wife
MANASSAS, V.i (AP) -
John Bobbin returned to the
witness stand Tuesday and
denied ever striking his wife
before she cut off his penis.
saying the worst ho ever did was "push her, hold
her down, restrain her from hitting me."
On the second day of his wife's malicious
wounding trial. Bobhitt disputed a court record
that a defense lawyer said showed Bobbitt pleaded
guilty to assaulting his wife. l,orena.
"I never pleaded guilty to nothing." Bobbitt said.
Lorena Bobbitt. 24. is charged with malicious
wounding for cutting off her husband's penis after
he came home from a night of drinking June 23.
If convicted, the Ecuadoran-born manicurist
could get up to 20 years in prison and be deported.
Bobhitt, 26, was acquitted late last year of
assaulting his wife.
The defense opened its case Tuesday by calling
Bobbin to the stand as an "adverse" witness. On
Monday, he testified for the prosecution, which
rested its case Tuesday morning
Both times, and in his own trial in November, ho
denied ever forcing his wife to have sex
Lorena Bobbitt contends that prolonged sexual,
physical and verbal abuse by Bobbitt during their
four-year marriage forced her to cut off his penis in
an "irresistible impulse." Bobbitt is seeking a
divorce.
Amalia Hoyt testified for the defense about on
incident in which Bobbitt gave bis wife bikini
underwear for Christmas in front of several
friends. Lorena Bobbitt was embarrassed and
walked away, she said
"He said 'Why are you trying to hide it/'" Hoyt
said. She said Bobhitt pushed lus wife against the
wall several times.
"She was really stared," Hoyt said
Terri McComber, who used to work with Lorena
Bobbitt, testified that Bobhitt would criticize his
wife's appearance, but could turn violent if other
men paid attention to her.
On a trip with the Bobbitts to Ocean City, Md .
McComber said somebody whistled and Bobbitt
believed it was directed at McComber and his
wife.
"He came up. grabbed her by the hair," she said.
He said the weekend was over. We re going
home.”
She said Bobbitt started hitting his wife in the
car on the wav home "He kept an using her of
looking at the guvs in other cars." she said
Defense attorney Blair Howard shower! Bobbitt
ret ords from a court case that the lawyer said
showed he pleaded guilty in Mari h 10*11 to
assaulting Ins wife
Bobbitt disputed the records Commonwealth's
Attorney Paul B Fliert said the court did not issue
a Final finding of guilt in the case
"I could never hit my wife." Bobbitt said. "1 nev
er hit her at all — just push her, hold her down,
restrain her from hitting me."
Instead. Bobbitt said, it was his wife who some
times assaulted him.
In one instance, he said, she got upset when they
weren't allowed in a restaurant because he was
wearing sneakers and began hitting him us they
drove home.
"My brother was sitting in the back seat, and I
remember looking in the rearview mirror and he
was just nodding his head." Bobbitt said
Detective Peter I. Weinti. who testified for the
prosecution, said Corona Bobbitt told him that her
husband forced himself on her early June 2.1 and,
when she complained to him afterward, said he
didn't care about her feelings.
" 'If he wanted to make love, he should have
asked me,' " the detective quoted her as saying
After severing the penis that day. Lorens Bobbitt
drove off and threw it from her car window She
later directed officers to the location, where the
organ was recovered by Howard Perry, a rescue
squad member.
"I picked up the penis and plai ed it m a clear,
plastic bag." Perry said.
By that time. Bobbitt had arrived at Prince
William Hospital, where he was examined by l)r
James T Selin
"There was nothing but a large amount of blood
w here the penis should have been.” said Selin, a
urologist who reattached the organ in an operation
that lasted about nine hours It appeared it had
been severed right at the body wall
Holier! Johnston, a house guest of Bobbitt who
drove him to the hospital, said Bobbitt was naked
and had blood on his hands when Bobbitt woke
him up.
Johnston quoted Bobbitt as saving, " You bet
ter get me to the hospital I've fieen cut
The jury of seven women and five men looked at
photographs of Bobbitt's injury, but only for a few
seconds. The only reaction was a frown by one
woman juror.
Sehn said it is still uncertain how well the reat
tached penis will function
Panel to probe radiation test data
WASHINGTON (AT) - Pres
ident Clinton will name a civil
ian panel of scientists to inde
pendently review human
radiation test data uncovered by
a government-wide search and
determine whether ethical stan
dards were violated, administra
tion officials said Tuesday.
At the same time, the Energy
Department said it had complet
ed telephone interviews with
some 4.000 people who have
called a department hot line and
that about one-fifth had com
plained of lining victims of some
radiation experiments.
In all. more than 10.000
callers have gotten through to u
bank of 36 operators. About half
of them were veterans and were
referred to the Department of
Veterans Affairs Thousands
more people have been unable
to get through, with the hot line
receiving as many as 700 calls
an hour, department spokesmen
said.
The civilian advisory panel,
expected to lie named later this
month, will examine the hun
dreds of thousands of docu-'
ments on reported radiation
tests conducted on humans dur
ing the Cold War. It also may
interview some of the victims
and in some cases recommend
compensation, although a final
compensation scheme will have
to be approved by Congress, said
Energy Department spokesman
Michael Gatildin.
"We felt it was important to
choose a non-governmental
body to make these determina
tions," Gauldin said
He said the civilian panel is
"going to lie given broad range"
in analyzing the data once it is
assembled It will also bit given
wide latitude to judge whether
the experiments were within
proper ethical bounds — as they
existed at the time and by
today's standards.
Gauldin emphasized that it
would be up to Congress to
determine actual compensation
Hu said it had not yet been
determined who would he on
the advisory panel, which will
consist of health physicists,
experts on radiology, and spe
cialists in medical ethics.
Meanwhile, there are signs
that the massive record search
and the intense public reaction
from thousands of people who
claim to have been victims is
threatening to overwhelm offi
cials trying to manage the pro
gram.
Gauldin said the interagency
"working group" formed a week
ago to coordinate the search of
records in eight agencies and
departments is trying to more
clearly define exactly what
experiments should be included
in the sweep for documents and
files.
"We're looking for cases in
which the government deliber
ately exposed people to radia
tion or deliberately released
radiation," Gauldin told
reporters Tuesday "We're very
com erned about being able to
manage this task. Its an
immense |ob "
Cauldin said the search of
documents specifically will not
include cases of accidental
exposure, including some
involving accidental releases of
radiation at government nuclear
weapons plants.
The task fort e also has not yet
clearly determined what med
ical experiments might be sub
ject to the search Officials
acknowledged, for example, that
some radiation experiments
conducted on humans were well
within medical standards with
proper medical goals, and in
some oases may have had thera
peutic effect.
Cauldin said the records
search is intended to "cast a
wide net" but that researchers
will "specifically look at how
the experiments were condui t
ed" and whether there was
proper consent.
"We’re still largely in the
searching process," said
Gauldin, predicting it will take
"months. |>erhaps years" to find
all the records and analyze
them.
In addition to the Energy
Department, record searches on
human radiation tests have boon
directed at the departments of
Defense. Veterans Affairs, and
Health and Human Services, as
well as at the Central Intelli
gence Agency and NASA
Qet results. Advertise in the.
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