Palm Springs woman to stand trial for organ clipping

A Palm Springs woman accused of trying to cut off her husband’s penis with heavy-duty scissors was ordered Friday to stand trial on felony charges.

Riverside County Superior Court Judge Thomas N. Douglass ruled after an hour-long preliminary hearing that there was enough evidence for 70-year-old Virginia Valdez to proceed to trial on one count each of inflicting corporal injury on a spouse and assault with a deadly weapon.

Another judge previously issued a protective order barring Valdez from having any contact with her husband, according to court records.

She posted $100,000 bail and was released from jail Dec. 5, two days after Palm Springs police went to the couple’s residence in the 1700 block of Rochelle Road in response to a call from Valdez’s 62-year-old husband.

Palm Springs police Detective Simon Min, in a declaration in support of an arrest warrant, alleged that Valdez and her husband were having oral sex when she announced said she had to brush her teeth, then “retrieved a pair of scissors and cut the victim’s penis.”

Her husband, identified as “John Doe” in the criminal complaint, “got up in a panic and screamed in pain,” Min wrote. The victim drove himself to Desert Regional Medical Center, where he told police that his wife had tried to cut off his penis, according to the detective.

Police did not indicate if the man suffered permanent damage, but Min wrote that the husband required “advanced medical (attention)” that included four stitches.
Riverside County District Attorney’s Office spokesman John Hall said Valdez could get up to nine years in prison if convicted.

The case is reminiscent of that of Lorena Bobbitt, who gained notoriety in 1994 when she cut off her husband’s penis while he slept. John Wayne Bobbitt, an ex-Marine, came home drunk and forced sex on his wife, who was found not guilty by reason of temporary insanity.