“taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power,”
How does one ‘turn up the power’ on a portable telephone? A remote telephone or a cell phone?
The voltages on either device would be minimal as well as the current flow. I do not know this for a fact but it seems implausible to me that either would cause pain or even feel the current flow.
A land-line telephone, on the other hand, has the capability to ‘shock’ and cause pain when it is ringing.
I really don’t know about the phone business, you’d have to ask the current Secretary of State who first said it.