Astronaut arrested

[Skylace]

An astronaut who grew up in Rockville, graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy and flew on the space shuttle Discovery last summer was charged Tuesday with the attempted murder of a woman she believed to be the rival love interest of a shuttle pilot.

According to Orlando police, Navy Capt. Lisa M. Nowak, 43, drove 900 miles from her home in Houston, wearing a diaper so she would not have to stop to use a restroom. She spotted Air Force Capt. Colleen Shipman, 30, who arrived Monday at Orlando International Airport after a commercial flight from Houston.

Nowak, dressed in a trench coat and wearing a black wig, followed Shipman from a parking shuttle to her car and squirted her with pepper spray, according to court documents.

But the basis for the murder charge was a black duffel bag that Nowak was carrying, packed with a steel mallet, high-powered BB gun and buck knife. Prosecutors allege that the weapons prove an intent to kill.

Her lawyer disagrees.

"These are the given facts," attorney Donald Lykkebak said in a bail hearing Tuesday that was broadcast live on television. "A desperate woman wants to have a conversation with another woman. She didn't shoot her, she didn't stab her, she didn't do anything else other than to talk to her."

Lykkebak, based in Orlando, did not return phone calls seeking comment.

In a statement released Tuesday night, Nowak's family said the mother of three had separated from her husband in recent weeks.

"We are anxious to allow the facts to develop so that we can better under stand what happened, and why. We hope that the public will keep an open mind about what the facts will eventually show and that the legal system will be allowed to run its course," the statement read.

NASA removed Nowak from flight status and all mission-related activities and put her on 30-day leave Tuesday. The space agency has never had an active- duty astronaut charged with a felony, said Roger Launius, chairman of the space history division at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington.

"We are deeply saddened by this tragic event. The charges against Lisa Nowak are serious ones that must be decided by the judicial system. We will continue to monitor developments in the case," Michael Coats, director of NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, said in a statement released Tuesday night by the agency.

Steve Lindsey, who heads the astronaut office at the Johnson Space Center, flew to Florida to investigate what happened and "determine the next steps," a spokesman said. He was also there to support Nowak, a longtime family friend, when a judge set bond at $15,500 for the initial charges of attempted kidnapping, attempted vehicle burglary with battery, destruction of evidence and battery.

Nowak posted bail and was to be released and allowed to return to Texas, but police and prosecutors filed the attempted murder charge and pushed for her to stay in jail with no bond.

They lost that fight when an added $10,000 bond was set for the attempted murder count and she left the jail about 5:20 p.m. with a jacket covering her head. Nowak will have to wear a tracking device.

If convicted on the most serious charge, she could be sentenced to life in prison.

Born in Washington, Nowak was valedictorian of her high school in Rockville and graduated from the Naval Academy in 1985, a member of the fifth class into which women were admitted. She lived in St. Mary's County while working at Patuxent River Naval Air Station, where she graduated from the Navy's test pilot school. NASA selected Nowak in 1996. She flew aboard Discovery last July.

She told police she went to Florida to talk to Shipman, an engineer assigned to the 45th Launch Support Squadron at Patrick Air Force Base near the Kennedy Space Center, who she believed was "involved" with Cmdr. William A. Oefelein, 41, who lives in Houston and also trained at Patuxent in 1995 and 1997.

Police recovered from Nowak's car a cache of e-mail messages from Shipman to Oefelein and a letter from Nowak stating how much she loved the man, though she told a detective that their relationship was "more than a working relationship but less than a romantic relationship." She told police she obtained Shipman's flight information without permission from Oefelein's computer.

Oefelein, who piloted Discovery during a mission to the International Space Station several months after Nowak's mission on the craft, did not return phone calls seeking comment, and the nature of his relationship with either woman was unclear Tuesday night. Calls placed to Shipman's and Nowak's homes were not returned.

Though Nowak contended that her weapons were meant only to scare Shipman, the charging documents paint a portrait of a well-planned, if bizarre, mission that turned into a harrowing few moments more apropos to a Hollywood thriller.

Nowak had brought a disguise, BB gun, steel mallet, buck knife, rubber tubing, several large plastic garbage bags, $600 and six latex gloves. She also had brought diapers that she told police allowed her to drive without stopping to urinate, court documents said.

Donning sunglasses, a wig and trench coat, Nowak waited for Shipman to arrive on the 1 a.m. flight Monday and followed her onto a parking shuttle, records show. Shipman became alarmed when Nowak appeared to be following her, so she rushed to her car and locked the door, hearing "running footsteps" behind her.

Shipman declined, and Nowak asked to use her cell phone, which she also declined. Nowak began to cry and said she couldn't hear, so Shipman rolled down the window slightly and Nowak squirted her with pepper spray. Shipman sped off, the documents say, eventually finding police, who arrested Nowak after she attempted to throw away the duffel bag and disguise.

When questioned later by police, Nowak admitted to wearing the disguise and told an officer that her decision to spray Shipman was "stupid," but asserted that she was never going to hurt the woman.

"The facts that Mrs. Nowak drove approximately 900 miles, urinated in diapers so that she did not need to stop, stayed at a hotel where she paid cash and used a false name and address to register, stealthily followed the victim, while in disguise, and possessed multiple deadly weapons at the time she confronted the victim, as well as spraying the victim with a substance meant to disable a person, create a well-founded fear and give this investigator probable cause to believe that Mrs. Nowak intended to murder Mrs. Shipman," wrote William Becton, the lead detective in the case.

At Tuesday's hearing, Lykkebak, Nowak's lawyer, complained that his client was held by police from 4 a.m. Monday when she was arrested until 6 that evening, well after she had asked to speak with a lawyer, and that prosecutors were trying to "put a different spin on the same ball" in adding the attempted murder charge without new evidence.

Nowak appeared plaintive in court, apparently fighting tears, and shaking her head vigorously when a prosecutor read part of the allegations, saying that Nowak intended to "injure the victim."

Michael Seigel, a former federal prosecutor and professor at the University of Florida's Levin College of Law, said, "Based on the evidence that's been disclosed so far, it does not sound like a strong attempted-murder case."

Seigel, who specializes in criminal law and is not involved in the case, said prosecutors would have to prove that Nowak intended to kill Shipman and was thwarted at the last minute, possibly requiring a diary or confession in which she stated her intentions.

Barring that, it would be a case of circumstantial evidence, he said.

Charles Bolden, a former astronaut and retired Marine Corps major general who was an acquaintance of Nowak's, said he believed the accusations "would be difficult for any community, not just among astronauts."

"I was as surprised as anybody, but I've chosen to watch and wait and give everybody the benefit of the doubt," he said.

[calm]

What irritates me most about these "celebrities" being charged is that Larry King and The Clowns will be rehabilitating them in very quick order.

When a celebrity is charged with a criminal act, the media turns to excuses and begins to review the Encyclopdeia Britanica of mental disorders to make sense of it all.

That is not the way it is for poor folks. When poor folks commit a criminal act, the media claims "meanness" and "greed".

I remember when a doctor in Canada killed his wife and two kids and then got in his car and then speedily drove down the expressway in an attempt to commit suicide. He survived. Because the doctor lived on the same street as the city mayor, the media claimed the poor doctor must of had a nervous breakdown because of "pressures" he underwent while doing his job as a doctor.

When a poor guy loses his job and watches his family slip away ..... if he commits a crime, he is called an "animal".

Calm

[IRiSHMaFIA]

Actually....Larry King, Buzz Aldrin and a few others dissected her mental state last night a wee bit so you're right on the money.

You're spot on about a poor guy losing his job etc. Since he's just 'common folk' and not a member of the so called elite he's utter scum.

Pretty pathetic but that's what we as people have created for ourselves. We put so called celebs on a different level than us and this is the result.

[HandoGod]

What irritates me is that stupid judges knock 3 months off the sentance that Gary Glitter got.

The whole justice system and poilce in general are pathetic IMHO.

[eefanincan]

[IRiSHMaFIA]

[eefanincan]

[Skylace]

[faceless]

[Skylace]

[eefanincan]

[faceless]

[Skylace]

[calm]

I expect her lawyer to claim that their are "mental-destroyer" bugs out there in space.

Her lawyer will explain that this woman caught this "mental" virus while serving American interests in space and should be given the Congressional Medal Of Honour.

Sort of .... "She took a bug for mankind". She got "spaced" for the betterment of God and Country.

Calm

[eefanincan]