Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, January 25, 1994 TAG: 9401250152
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C3 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
Bobbitt is housed in a private room in the women's wing at Central State Hospital in Petersburg, said her lawyer, Lisa Kemler, who visited the hospital over the weekend.
"She was in a wonderful mood" after a Prince William County jury found her innocent Friday of malicious wounding for slicing off John Bobbitt's penis with a kitchen knife, Kemler said.
Lorena Bobbitt will be evaluated by hospital staff who will help determine whether she should stay hospitalized or be released.
Kemler and mental-health officials said a two-member psychiatric team also will study her case. Kemler said she does not know when those experts will issue their final report, "but my guess is that it's going to be a couple of weeks."
Doctors who evaluate Lorena Bobbitt will draw on the extensive evaluations already completed and presented at her malicious wounding trial, Kemler said. That should speed the evaluation process, she said.
Lorena Bobbitt, 24, checked into the hospital within hours of her acquittal in Prince William Circuit Court. Her lawyers argued that years of sexual and physical abuse drove her to mental illness. A rape she says occurred June 23 pushed her over the edge to temporary insanity, the lawyers said.
At her trial, she admitted cutting off John Bobbitt's penis early that morning, but said she does not remember the act.
Lorena Bobbitt has spoken by telephone with family and friends since arriving at the hospital, and saw some friends in person, Kemler said.
Mercedes Castro, a close friend, visited on Sunday.
"She was just glad that . . . everything turned out the way it did," Castro said on NBC's Today Show.
Lorena Bobbitt apparently was surprised by the verdict. The Ecuador-born manicurist could have faced 20 years in prison if convicted.
"I don't think she believed it would happen, because it didn't happen in the husband's case," Kemler said.
John Bobbitt, 26, was acquitted of marital sexual assault at a separate trial in November.
He took the stand at his wife's trial to deny he ever struck or raped her. A friend and members of his family corroborated his story.
In an interview Monday with the American Journal television show, John Bobbitt said his wife lied.
"I was shocked, and I turned to my mother and said, `What, she got away with it?' " John Bobbitt said.
"I believe there's not one shred of truth that came out of her or her witnesses," he said in the interview, which airs today.
Lorena Bobbitt's friends, neighbors, co-workers, clients and others testified about abuse they said John Bobbitt dished out during the couple's four-year marriage.
"Having all these people coming up in her defense was a tremendous boost," Kemler said.
Psychiatrists will observe and gather information on Lorena Bobbitt, then issue a report within 45 days stating whether she is mentally ill or a danger to society, and whether she can be treated on an outpatient basis.
Russell Petrella, director of mental-health services for the Virginia Department of Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Substance Abuse Services, refused to comment specifically on the case.
All defendants found not guilty by reason of insanity must undergo psychiatric evaluation, Petrella said.
He said the psychiatric report must be filed within 45 days, "or less time, depending on the individual case," after which Judge Herman Whisenant will schedule a hearing on Lorena Bobbitt's fate.
by CNB