Wife fails to show in action against Bobbitt

Kim Smith

Thursday, May 23, 2002 | 9:52 a.m.

A temporary protective order taken out against John Wayne Bobbitt was dissolved Wednesday when his wife failed to show up in court to have it extended.

Instead, Bobbitt and his wife of two months, Joanna, plan to seek counseling, Bobbitt told a court officer.

Joanna Bobbitt asked for the order May 14 after telling police that Bobbitt, 35, had assaulted her in their Las Vegas home. Clark County Domestic Violence Commissioner Frank P. Sullivan was to decide Wednesday whether to extend the order for a year.

When Joanna Bobbitt didn't put in an appearance, Sullivan dissolved the order.

John Bobbitt's attorney, Barry Levinson, told Sullivan that Joanna Bobbitt has both visited her husband in the Clark County Detention Center and given him $20 to use at the jail commissary.

Stuttering slightly, Bobbitt told Sullivan his wife saw him Thursday and Saturday.

"I spoke with her and she thought we needed some counseling," Bobbitt said.

Bobbitt, who gained notoriety when a former wife cut off his penis in 1993, is currently on probation for attempting to steal $140,000 worth of clothes from a Fallon store in 1997.

Levinson said Wednesday that his client will appear in a Fallon courtroom June 4 for a probation revocation hearing based on the domestic violence charge. He could get a three-year prison sentence.

Bobbitt will be arraigned July 9 on a domestic violence charge stemming from the alleged assault, Levinson said.

Levinson said Bobbitt's wife lied about what happened last week, perhaps so she could cash in on a deal with Playboy magazine, with whom she has been negotiating.