Posted on 08/11/2007 6:16:41 AM PDT by Daffynition
ORLANDO, Fla. — Impatient. Defensive. Emotional. Incoherent.
Astronaut Lisa Nowak is all of these things in a four-hour video, released today, of her stay in a holding cell immediately after her arrest at the airport here in February.
As officers come in and out of her cell to give her something to drink or take her to the restroom, Nowak seems frustrated and bewildered by repeated questions implying her intentions toward her romantic rival Colleen Shipman, an officer at Patrick Air Force Base near Cape Canaveral, Fla., were more than just to talk.
After her arrest on charges of attempted kidnapping of Shipman, officers found a knife, BB gun and garbage bags among other things in her car. Police say Nowak drove from Houston to Orlando and followed Shipman in the middle of the night to a parking lot at Orlando International Airport and sprayed her with pepper spray.
"I guess I didn't think there was anything to get caught. I just wanted to talk to her. I just thought once we talked she'd understand why I was there," she says shakily as she stands at the doorway of her cell. "I didn't want her to run off as soon as she saw me."
At the start of the video Nowak is calm but impatient. Dressed in a dark, oversized jacket, dark pants and dark shoes, her hair in a ponytail, she in turn paces the cell and stands at the door. She keeps an eye on her watch and repeatedly asks officers how much longer she'll be held. She wants to make a phone call about her children, she says. Officers refuse but offer to make the call for her. She declines.
Eventually she begins to unravel. She lies on the floor in a fetal position, her back against the door. She gets up, and officers bring her something to drink. She seems to say she feels dizzy, and they offer to bring her food. She asks for an apple.
"Do you know where you are, what city you're in?" one officer asks. Her response is inaudible. "You seem like you're kind of out of it," he replies.
"I've been awake for a long time," she replies tearfully.
Another officer brings her an apple, and she begins to eat.
"What's going on in your mind right now?" an officer asks.
"That I'm going to be locked up forever," she replies in part, tearfully.
"Did you think about what you were doing when you were doing it?" he asks. Nowak's response is tearful and mostly incoherent.
Eventually, seemingly revived by the apple, she and the officers discuss her relationship with Bill Oefelein, the astronaut who was at the center of the love triangle. (The Navy eventually transferred Nowak and Oefelein out of the NASA astronaut corps).
She says she doesn't want to say too much because she doesn't want other people to get in trouble. She continues to push for a phone call and makes clear she doesn't want NASA to find out about her arrest.
She discusses with an FBI agent whether documents in her car involving the shuttle are classified. She says they aren't. And the conversation turns back toward her intentions for Shipman.
"I didn't have a plan. I just gathered things. I didn't have any idea what I was going to do with them or show them or anything like that," she says. "I certainly couldn't have used any of them, and most of them were too scary to think about. I just wanted to have something. Please just stay here and talk to me for a few minutes."
Nowak, a 44-year-old mother of three, wore diapers to avoid bathroom breaks during her drive from Houston to Orlando, according to police. Her attorney denies it.
Nowak's trial on the kidnapping charges and other alleged crimes is scheduled for Sept. 24.
Under Florida law, much of the evidence against her, including her interrogation by a police detective, already has been made public.
Aw, geez, can’t they just leave the poor woman alone? She obviously just flaked out.
They found a detailed list of items and other plans. She knew exactly what she was ging to do and it wasn’t ‘talking’.
My oh my that is pitiful. That video demonstrates her detachment from reality.
What did it say her plan was?
Precisely. She’s had a mental break. Sad, but it happens.
She’s crazy as a loon, but extremely dangerous. Mental hospital or jail? I don’t know.
A woman who rose to the rank of Navy Captain and Astronaut had to be a fairly remarkable person. I have to believe she just wigged out, because this behavior is so out of character. They ought to fine her for some misdemeanor and the Navy should let her retire.
Like Jackie Gleason said in Smokey and the Bandit, you can think about it, just don’t do it.
I can’t fathom why this was released! This woman is seriously mentally ill and has a right to privacy like anybody else. If she has a competent attorney, she’ll be suing the government for millions over the release of this video, and win. Imagine this woman’s poor children, who now have to face friends and acquaintances who’ve seen this. Nowak belongs in a secure mental hospital.
“Seriously” mentally ill? What diagnosis?
I think it’s obvious she snapped. I’m not sure it will absolve her of guilt, though. I wonder if she’s gotten psychological help in the meantime.
Bust her to E3 and assign her to a garbage scow.
When you return to Earth they turn on.
In fact, T-cells that were never really working turn on.
There are a host of genetically driven conditions that can occur in association with T-cell overproduction of antibodies.
Among them are Scandinavian Porphyria, Celiac Disease, Lupus Erythematosis, and so on.
Those early photos after her arrest suggest she was suffering from Lupus, and I just bet her urine would turn purple in sunlight. The diaper is symptomatic of someone just now discovering the delights of intermittent Celiac.
None of this would have happened if she hadn't been returned from space.
FOUR HOUR VIDEO?
I think I'll just wait for "Lisa Nowak's Greatest Hits" instead.
Stark raving loony. I’ll let the psychiatrists pick a fancy scientific name for it.
Nowak has taken the last train to looneyville. She’s completely off her nut. At this point I think jail is the last place she needs to be’ I would say the looney bin is far more appropriate. At least there she can get the help she needs. It’s very sad to see how far from grace this one has fallen.
Looks like a bad case of diaper rash. Of course, it depends.
She has had an acute break from reality. It is called psychosis. Depending on the stressors even some people without a psychiatric history can break. With treatment she should come around to some normalcy. But can you imagine what she will suffer emotionally when she is rational again and made aware of her actions?
This is really sad. I think the video can only help her defense in her trial.
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