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This image provided by the Orange County District Attorney's
office shows a booking …
Catherine Kieu, left, turns away from news photographers during
a court hearing Wednesday …
WESTMINSTER, Calif. (AP) — A Southern California woman accused
of cutting off her estranged husband's penis and putting it down a
garbage disposal was charged Wednesday with torture in a case that
has garnered international attention and could put her behind bars
for life.
Catherine Kieu, 48, appeared briefly in Orange County Superior
Court in a navy blue jail jumpsuit, hiding her face with her long,
dark hair. She was appointed a public attorney to defend her and
was denied bail.
She was placed in the jail's medical ward to be psychologically
evaluated, sheriff's spokesman Jim Amormino told the Orange County
Register.
The petite woman whose chains clanked as she shuffled into the
caged area of the courtroom where inmates are held will return to
court July 22 for her arraignment, which was continued on
Wednesday, and a bail review hearing.
Kieu and her husband were still living together in a Garden
Grove condo that he owned. He had filed for divorce in May, and
they argued before the attack about friends staying at the condo,
authorities said.
On Monday night, police say Kieu spiked a meal and served it to
the victim.
The 60-year-old man started to feel sick and went to lie down,
then awoke tied to the bed as Kieu attacked him with a 10-inch
kitchen knife, police said.
She then put the penis down a garbage disposal, police said.
"It's hard to believe what would motivate a person to do this
sort of thing," the district attorney's chief of staff, Susan Kang
Schroeder, said outside court. "It's one of the worst things you
could do to a person short of killing him."
Newly appointed defense attorney Lee Gabriel made no public
statement after the hearing.
Police did not release the victim's name. He underwent surgery
and was listed in good condition at University of California at
Irvine Medical Center, hospital spokesman John Murray said.
Murray declined to say whether the penis was reattached or
provide any additional details about the victim's condition, citing
patient privacy laws.
Dr. Joel Gelman heads UC Irvine's Center for Reconstructive
Urology, and didn't comment on the victim specifically but said a
severed penis is "a terrible loss and it's the hardest thing, in
our specialty, to deal with surgically."
In cases of penis loss, a penis-like structure with limited
utility can be constructed using flesh and skin from the forearm,
said Gelman.
Patients — typically older men — often function without a penis
by having the urethra threaded through the scrotum to facilitate
seated urination, said Gelman.
Kieu was charged with one felony count of torture, one felony
count of aggravated mayhem and sentencing enhancements for great
bodily injury and personal use of a knife. If convicted of all
counts, she could face life in prison without the possibility of
parole.
Garden Grove Police Lt. Jeff Nightengale said Kieu called police
Monday night to report a medical emergency and told arriving
officers "he deserved it" before pointing to the room where the
victim was found bleeding profusely. She was taken into custody
without incident and refused to talk to officers further.
The couple was married in December 2009. When the victim filed
for divorce, he cited irreconcilable differences, court records
show. Kieu was slowly moving her things out of the condo,
authorities said.
The victim declined to comment when he was reached by phone
Tuesday by The Orange County Register.
"This is a private matter," he said.
A call by The Associated Press to a phone number listed on court
documents for the victim was answered Wednesday by a person who
promptly hung up.
Officers visited the victim on Tuesday and found him in
"amazingly good spirits considering everything he has gone
through," Nightengale said.
Neighbor Lourdes Painter said the couple did not have any
children and seemed quiet. Kieu and her husband lived in a
second-story condo in the working class complex. Painter lives in
the unit below them.
Detectives were analyzing the food served for dinner.
In 1993, Lorena Bobbitt cut off her husband's penis in Virginia
and threw it out of her car window into a field on the side of the
road. She claimed years of sexual abuse drove her to the attack,
and she was acquitted by reason of insanity.
The penis was later reattached.
___
Associated Press video journalist John Mone and reporter Shaya
Tayefe Mohajer contributed to this report.
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Yeeee . . . ..........
gruesome! Men treat your wives
well . . . .. . ..... hahahah
....