Astronaut Pleads Guilty to Attacking Rival

Former Astronaut Lisa Nowak Cops Plea, Sentenced to 1 Year Probation for Confronting Romantic Rival in Airport Parking Lot

(AP)  A former astronaut who drove 1,000 miles from Houston to Orlando to mount a bizarre attack on a romantic rival pleaded guilty Tuesday to reduced charges and was sentenced to a year on probation.

Lisa Nowak, a Navy captain, pleaded guilty to third-degree felony burglary and misdemeanor battery. She originally had been charged with two felonies — attempted kidnapping and burglary — along with misdemeanor battery. She could have faced up to life in prison under the more serious felony charges.

Nowak confronted her romantic rival, Colleen Shipman, in the parking lot of Orlando International Airport in February 2007 after driving from Houston. Shipman had begun dating Nowak's love interest, former space shuttle pilot Bill Oefelein.

Wearing a wig and trenchcoat, Nowak followed Shipman to the parking lot and tried to get into her car, then attacked her with pepper spray. Shipman was able to drive away.

Police arrested Nowak a short time later in the parking lot near a trash can where she was seen getting rid of a bag. In Nowak's bag police found a steel mallet, a knife, a BB pistol, rubber tubing and several large garbage bags.

"Almost three years later, I'm still reeling from her vicious attack," Shipman told Circuit Judge Marc L. Lubet after Nowak's plea, holding back tears. "I know in my heart when Lisa Nowak attacked me, she was going to kill me.

"I believe I escaped a horrible death that night," said Shipman, a former Air Force captain who worked at Patrick Air Force Base near the Kennedy Space Center.

Shipman described how she still fears for her life, suffers nightmares, migraines, high blood pressure and other medical problems and has bought a shotgun and has a concealed weapons permit. She said her Air Force career was ruined by medical problems stemming from the attack. She now lives in Alaska with Oefelein.

"The world I knew before Lisa Nowak is unrecognizable," Shipman said. "Every stranger I see is a potential attacker."

After being told by the judge to face Shipman, Nowak apologized for the pain she brought to Shipman's life.

"I hope very much that we can all move forward from this with privacy and peace," Nowak said.

Lubet ordered her to have no contact with Shipman or Oefelein and to write Shipman a letter of apology. The sentence included two days in jail but the judge waived it for time already served. He said the plea could adversely affect her career and retirement benefits with the Navy.

"You brought this on yourself. I don't have any sympathy for you in that respect," Lubet told Nowak.

The plea came after an appeals court ruled last year that diapers, latex gloves and other items found in Nowak's car could be used as evidence in a trial that had been scheduled for next month, but her six-hour police interview after her arrest could not. The court said investigators took advantage of the former astronaut, who had not slept for more than 24 hours, coercing her into giving information.

Prosecutor Pam Davis had asked for jail time and at least five years of probation, dismissing claims from Nowak's defense attorney that Nowak had been "over charged" by police detectives because of her high profile.

"This has nothing to do with Ms. Nowak being an astronaut. This is about what she did," Davis said.

Nowak, 46, is a married mother of three. She flew on the space shuttle in 2006, but was dismissed from the astronaut corps after her arrest and has since been on active duty at a Navy base in Corpus Christi, Texas. Oefelein, 44, also was forced out of NASA.

[jtdev1]

If you or I did anything remotely like this we'd be in jail for at least 10 years.

How blind is the justice system? not blind at all for certain people.

[anti-global3]

I see her becoming a spokesperson for depends.

[formrusmcsgt]

One wonders how such an unstable woman made the astronaut corps in the first place......

[licht1]

It's Not Captain Nowak's fault. Blame NASA's equipment.

See:

http://notionscapital.wordpress.com/2009/11/10/astronaut-sex-scandalguilty/

[imnho]

I wonder if she gets to keep her Navy retirement? Was part of the plea deal is that she retire from the navy at less than full retirement.

Her name may wind up being a verb soe day. To be nowacked is to be attacked by a wackjob.

[SocietysNightmare]

This has to be the stupidest woman alive! You threw away your life's work for a man?! Was it worth it? Rhetorical question. Of course it WASN'T! I just hope that young women reading this are not stupid enough to repeat your mistake. NO RELATIONSHIP is worth an extreme like this.

[mjlewis6]

Oh, forgot something. Plea bargains in instances like this may be ratcheted up to include psychiatric counseling and reports to the court on progress. Any non-cooperative behavior and she is in the pokey as if from day one...or four-six months of jail time with good time for behavior. Bet she has a courts martial for conduct unbecoming an officer....now!

[mjlewis6]

The potential for great harm was there, but did not happen. Probation seemed most probable. Wish we could get even that for Policemen who seem to use the taser a might too much with multiple triggering that causes death.

So a pepper spray attack, by comparison, seems to be a small assault akin to smoke bombs for the visiting football team bus or a Green rally that uses paintballs against security for the G8 meetings.

[Skruffy1]

~humming the theme from "Spaceballs"~

[dennisgreen5]

These people are still in outer space!

[dontknowitall]

This may be true, however while on planet earth she's probably looking for a date. In case your interested.