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Former Astronaut Diaper Woman Lisa Marie Nowak Pleads Guilty

by Yuliya Talmazan | November 10, 2009 at 05:13 pm

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Lisa Marie Nowak, a 46-year-old former astronaut pleaded guilty to charges of burglary and misdemeanor battery in court today to avoid going to jail. Nowak is accused of assaulting Colleen Shipman, the girlfriend of her ex-lover NASA commander Bill Oefelein, on February 5, 2007.

In 2007, Nowak drove 1000 miles from Houston to Orlando, wearing diapers to avoid making washroom stops on her way, all in an effort to launch a physical attack on Shipman. It is alleged Nowak has sprayed Shipman with pepper spray in an attempt to kidnap her. Nowak avoided more serious charges of attempted kidnapping by pleading guilty to lesser charges today.

Shipman asked for jail time because she says she was convinced Nowak wanted to kill her.

Nowaks sentence includes 1 year probation, community service, anger management classes, an apology letter to Shipman, and no contact with either Shipman or Oefelein.

udge: “I am sentencing you to I year supervised probabtion – this can be transferred to Texas … 50 hours community service … You are to have no contact of any sort – and I mean any sort – with Colleen Shipman … You are to send a sincere letter of apology to Ms. Shipman to be delivered within 10 days … You brought this upon yourself. I do not have any sympathy with you in that respect … I also want you to do an 8 hour anger management class. You are to have no contact whatsoever with Mr. Oefelin either. No books, no messages, no poems …”

Shipman said that the attack – and the resulting media whirlwind – damaged her health, career and emotional well-being. Nowak faced Shipman in court and said that she was "sincerely sorry" for the attack.