Testimony Portrays Lorena Bobbitt As Jealous And Violent
MANASSAS, Va. - A former co-worker testified today that Lorena Bobbitt once said she would cut off her husband's penis if she ever caught him cheating on her.
Connie James, who worked with Lorena Bobbitt in a nail salon, said the two once had a discussion about infidelity in general terms.
"I made an observation. . . . I said I'd probably take everything and leave," James said. "I asked Lorena what she'd do."
James testified that Lorena Bobbitt told her she would cut off her husband's penis because, "That would hurt him more than just killing him."
Lorena Bobbitt testified in her malicious-wounding trial last week that she never made such a statement.
The Bobbitts separated twice during their marriage, both times because Lorena Bobbitt discovered her husband was having an affair, Lorena Bobbitt's psychiatrist has testified.
Earlier today, John Bobbitt returned to the stand and denied that he forced his wife to have an abortion or have anal sex. Two of his relatives testified that Lorena Bobbitt was jealous and mean and attacked her husband with little provocation.
Lorena Bobbitt says she cut off her husband's penis in 1993 because of repeated physical and sexual abuse during their four-year marriage.
Bobbitt disputed his wife's testimony, saying they agreed on an abortion when she got pregnant in the first year of their marriage.
"She made all the arrangements," Bobbitt said. "I just took her. I just drove her" to an abortion clinic "and drove her back home," he said.
Lorena Bobbitt testified earlier that her husband forced her to get the abortion, threatening to leave her if she didn't.
Under questioning by prosecutor Paul Ebert, Bobbitt denied taunting his wife by telling her the abortion would be painful.
He said she was upset after the abortion, and, "I hugged her and told her `Just forget about it; it's over.' "
Bobbitt also disputed his wife's testimony that he once forced her to have anal sex. "It was consensual. But she said she didn't like it" and he stopped, he said.
The defense has tried to show that years of physical and sexual abuse by her husband left her unable to resist an urge to maim her husband.
Bobbitt, 26, has denied ever hitting or raping his wife. He was acquitted of marital sexual assault in November.
Marylyn Biro, the aunt who raised Bobbitt, testified today that Lorena Bobbitt was jealous and got upset at a reception given for the couple after their marriage in June 1989 because Bobbitt was talking to another woman, his cousin.
Bobbitt moved back in with the Biros during a one-year separation from his wife, but Biro said Lorena Bobbitt constantly called. "She said send him home," Biro said. "I told her we couldn't make him come home. . . . I said `He left you because you're mean.' She said, `I'm reading the Bible, I'm going to church.' "
Todd Biro, a cousin of Bobbitt who lived with the couple shortly after they got married, testified today that he saw Lorena Bobbitt attack her husband when they couldn't get into a nightclub because Bobbitt was wearing running shoes.
"Lorena went into a frenzy and started screaming at him in front of the bouncer," he said. "On the way home, she started punching him in the face."
Lorena Bobbitt, 24, could get 20 years in prison if convicted.