Former astronaut Nowak’s trial delayed

[FDInLaw]

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS • March 11, 2008

ORLANDO — Former astronaut Lisa Nowak’s trial won’t begin next month, as previously scheduled.

Prosecutors on Monday filed their initial brief appealing the exclusion of some evidence in the case. A circuit court judge determined Nowak was coerced into talking with police and allowing the search of her car following a February 2007 arrest.

Nowak is charged with attempted kidnapping, battery and burglary with assault.

The former astronaut had been scheduled to go on trial starting April 7. Now, nothing can move forward until the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in Daytona Beach acts on the appeal.


http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080311/BREAKINGNEWS/80311069/1086/rss07

[Jules100]

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS • March 11, 2008

ORLANDO — Former astronaut Lisa Nowak’s trial won’t begin next month, as previously scheduled.

Prosecutors on Monday filed their initial brief appealing the exclusion of some evidence in the case. A circuit court judge determined Nowak was coerced into talking with police and allowing the search of her car following a February 2007 arrest.

Nowak is charged with attempted kidnapping, battery and burglary with assault.

The former astronaut had been scheduled to go on trial starting April 7. Now, nothing can move forward until the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in Daytona Beach acts on the appeal.


http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080311/BREAKINGNEWS/80311069/1086/rss07

I tried to follow the link but it would not let me , do you have any more info on the case or any updates

[dan_uk]

does anyone have any updates on this please?

[fgump2]

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS • March 11, 2008

ORLANDO — Former astronaut Lisa Nowak’s trial won’t begin next month, as previously scheduled.

Prosecutors on Monday filed their initial brief appealing the exclusion of some evidence in the case. A circuit court judge determined Nowak was coerced into talking with police and allowing the search of her car following a February 2007 arrest.

Nowak is charged with attempted kidnapping, battery and burglary with assault.

http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080311/BREAKINGNEWS/80311069/1086/rss07

The former astronaut had been scheduled to go on trial starting April 7. Now, nothing can move forward until the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in Daytona Beach acts on the appeal.

One thing I've wondered about this case is if Lisa Nowak will suffer any automatic penalties frome the navy if she gets convicted. I thought I read somewhere that service people convicted of a felony loose their pension rights.

[ChunkyRed]

I can't wait until this trial starts. :beer: Plenty of skeletons will fall out of closets. Please post any updates!

You would think she had it all, but it just goes to show, that love can make you trip! :punch: He must have really put it down in order for her to drive wearing a diaper! :cool: :tongue:

[dan_uk]

A pretrial status hearing has been scheduled for June 22, 2009. On April 1, 2009, the judge ordered Nowak to undergo two psychiatric evaluations before June 12, 2009

[ChunkyRed]

Thanks so much for the update. Keep them coming!!!

This is fascinating to me.

[RayStar]

I heard today the trial is set for sometime later this year. I think I heard December. I should have googled,

[dan_uk]

She is scheduled to stand trial on December 7, 2009

On May 15, 2009, it was reported that Nowak would not claim insanity if her case ever went to trial. Nowak’s attorney withdrew a previous motion filed in 2007 which would have left open the opportunity to use an insanity defense in the case

[Marian Paroo]

I'm glad is is going to trial.

I had the impression that it was plea bargained away.

[BeastofBears]

I'm glad is is going to trial.

I had the impression that it was plea bargained away.

Looks like it pretty much was: she pleaded guilty and got off with no jail time.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,573623,00.html

[samanthajane13]

Ex-astronaut pleads guilty in attack on rival
By MIKE SCHNEIDER, Associated Press Writer Mike Schneider, Associated Press Writer – 1 hr 14 mins ago

ORLANDO, Fla. – 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.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091110/ap_on_re_us/us_astronaut_arrested

[Marian Paroo]

Looks like it pretty much was: she pleaded guilty and got off with no jail time.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,573623,00.html

That is so socky :flamemad:

How did she pull it off?!