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.

[Skruffy1]

Well, I am sure glad this story is back in the news. After the tragedy at Fort Hood last week, we need a chuckle. Gotta thank the long-distance-diaper-wearing-beat-up-the-rival-lover astronaut lady for the laughs. Maybe she could get a job flying for Northwest. With her... uhm... endurance for long-distance driving, they could blow past destination airports with sheer abandon.

[scubbasteve01]

Hey toldyouso21 check your comprehension at the door when not knowing how to address the criminal mind, FOOL. It goes a long away when looking at how crazy people can get when not using their common sense and remembering the difference between common sense and decency.
A sense of humor also helps when looking at the crime. So that you can say to yourself:
WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?
Those are the facts and I just toldyouso......FOOL.

[bubbadubba]

What a shame. Such a great career.

[scabbard2]

Wahhh, I thank sheas invaded by one of them space things like the Specius thing in the moovees, I mean jes look ater shes real cornbred, and after all she is a captain in the United States Navy...had she been a man, that Florida judge would have given her ten years for aggravated assault. Put this wingnut into memory, there will be more from her.

[toldyouso21]

Sex--that act whose purpose is to create and perpetuate life..when used recreationally from churches to NASA--appears to have the tendency to destroy lives... all of this is ridiculous--from the jealousy to the President's cigar moment, from an astronaut in diapers to hypocritical politicians with hookers, or liasons with men to those so called far right preachers getting the 'bootie' with other members. (Swaggart, Haggert, Baker, Falwell) liars all. Hypocrites all--if you want to destroy any American prominent--just compromise them with sexxxx. Many appear to not be able to reduce themselves to their most base instincts when it comes to being destroyed--talking about the little 'head' overruling the big head.....LOL

[Skruffy1]

Get real, toldyouso. Maybe YOUR opinion is that sex is just for procreating. I've enjoyed sex, for FUN (and it is!!!!), for over 40 years, and never for the purpose of making babies. I don't disagree with everything you said, but procreation is not the ONLY reason God gave it to us.

[erasmus111]

by scubbasteve01 November 10, 2009 2:43 PM EST
Well I guess she better start stocking up on diapers for her prison sentence.


I believe the article said that she was sentenced to a year on probation. Which of course is ridiculous because when you find a steel mallet, knife, pistol etc., you have to know she meant to harm.

Just the diapers alone tells you she meant business. : ) She didn't want "having to pee" taking away precious time.

[bgd73]

I still think she was sickened, like hypoxic. It has a bizarre outcome sometimes..I bet the diapers had a deeper reality than not getting admitted. I hope it is all facts revealed. I learned I was a homophobe during a hypoxic condition, I would have gone from sane to killer in seconds....if it were not for someone knowing what condition I was in. Delusion from such a demanding precision to just fly astonautical needs thorough investigation, not a pile of opinions.

"She 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".

You have got to be joking. This is a highly trained professional able to work in the hostile environment of space and she is all wussed out by a another woman in a nappy with some pepper spray. Yep, NASA breed em tough.

[bigmo47]

She was just getting that on the record as she prepares for her civil suit.

By the way, where is she concealing the shotgun? No wonder Oefelein picked here over Nowak...

[billyc555]

I think she's keeping her shotgun at Sara Palins house. :)

[lin1945-2009]

The judge was far too lenient in accepting the plea deal. The impact on the lives of Oefelein and Shipman seems to be disregarded. Both of them, prior to marrying, should sue Nowak for everything she has or may ever have. This is one deranged woman and to think she was with NASA. She ruined the career of Oefelein and he should have some compensation. Besides their lives she put severe turmoil in the lives of her children and her now-estranged husband. I hope the Navy tosses her out the door.

[bigmo47]

All three were committing adultery. No, this does not excuse Nowak's actions, but there are hardly any innocent victims in this case. Just remember "If you don't get caught in a sh-tty situation, you don't have to worry about someone showing up with diapers"!!!

[toldyouso21]

Nowak did not ruin Oefelein's career. the man was a cheat. His instrument and his disregard in how he applied it ruined his career, she would not have been obsessed with him had he not created the obsession--what man goes with one woman and then plays around in his own back yard (messing around with another astronaut) oh wait, we know--a class A JERK. He got what was coming to him--given the state of Nowak and how the news runs these days, he is lucky he and his new flame did not end up dead, and Nowak the suicide after the fact. Lesson to men--if mess with poop--it'll get all over you--don't crap in your own bed and not expect to have to lie in it. LOL

[CompletelyFrustrated]

This is why the USA has lost respect with other countries - we let criminals walk!

Our judicial system needs to grow a big hairy set of balls!!!

[FauxNews]

It's not a justice system, it's a justice business. She paid a fortune to stay out of jail, and they know she will be a repeat customer.

[bigmo47]

With which countries? El Salvador? The U.S. has the highest rate of incarceration and the 3rd Highest Execution rate of any industrialized nation. Yeah, they lost respect because of that!!!