Astro-nut Lisa Nowak, who made national headlines earlier this year when she drove cross -country in diapers so she could confront a romantic rival, spoke publicly for the first time today since her arrest.
Nowak, a 44-year-old Navy pilot, was in court earlier today for a pre-trial hearing. She asked a judge to remove her electronic monitoring bracelet which she was forced to wear after she allegedly tracked down Air Force Capt. Colleen Shipman, doused her in pepper spray and tried to force her into a car.
Nowak drove from straight from Houston to Orlando — wearing baby diapers to avoid stopping for bathroom breaks — to confront Shipman and has pleaded not guilty to charges of attempted kidnapping, battery and burglary with assault.
Police say Nowak also had a duffel bag with a steel mallet, 4-inch knife and a pellet gun.
Shipman testified at the hearing that she was comforted by knowing Nowak was wearing the monitoring bracelet.
“When I’m home alone and there’s nobody there with me, it is a comfort,” Shipman testified. She also acknowledged that she had visited her boyfriend in Nowak’s hometown of Houston several times since Nowak’s arrest. She did not say if that boyfriend was the same space shuttle pilot involved in the Nowak love triangle.
Nowak had told the detectives that she and Shipman were competing for the affection of the same man and that she confronted Shipman in an Orlando International Airport parking lot because she wanted to know “where she stands.”
Nowak’s attorney, Donald Lykkebak, asked for a police interview with Nowak given after her arrest be thrown out because she was under duress after being held for three hours, deprived of sleep and a phone call and unadvised of her constitutional rights. The interview persisted, Lykkebak said, despite Nowak saying “Should I have a lawyer?” three times.
He also said evidence found in Nowak’s car should be thrown out because police did not ask permission or have a warrant to search her car.
Orlando police Detective William Becton testified that he informed Nowak of her rights.
He said she never asked for an attorney but did ask him four times if he thought she needed one.
The interview was like a “chess game,” Becton said. He said Nowak bargained with information, like her car’s whereabouts.
“I realized I was dealing with somebody who was more intelligent than I was, more educated,” Becton said. “I was having a very difficult time gaining any information from her.”
Nowak’s main interest during the interview seemed to be how much Shipman knew, he said.
“There are chunks of the interview, if not large portions, where I’m actually the one being interviewed by her,” Becton said. “She was very calculating and methodical in the manner in which she would answer my questions.”
Becton also mentioned the diapers, which had made Nowak a joke on comedy shows and around the world.
He said Nowak told him she urinated in them on the 1,000-mile drive from Houston to Orlando to limit stops. Astronauts use diapers during space shuttle missions. Lykkebak said it was not true and that the baby diapers had been left in the car after a hurricane evacuation.
During questioning about the monitoring bracelet, Nowak said it was bulky and painful, and has kept her out of public places fearing its alarm. She said it also interferes with her ability to exercise — a requirement for a Navy officer — and inhibits her ability to drive.
Nowak pays for the bracelet, which costs $105 a week and about $3,000 so far.
Kepler Funk, an attorney for Shipman, called the bracelet the most important condition of Nowak’s freedom.
“She is scared of Ms. Nowak,” Funk said of his client. “Right now there is probable cause to believe Ms. Nowak committed a crime against Ms. Shipman that’s punishable by life in prison. … The only comfort she’s had for the past six months is knowing that someone has been monitoring Ms. Nowak’s every move.”