Ex-astronaut Nowak wants ankle monitor removed

— -- Ex-astronaut Lisa Nowak's lawyer argued in court Friday that she was not properly warned of her rights and was promised by an Orlando detective that he would help her if she talked to police about her situation.

Lawyer Donald Lykkebak is trying to bar Nowak's statement to police from the evidence in her case. Lykkebak has also asked Judge Marc Lubet to discard evidence obtained by searching Nowak's car and to lift the order that Nowak must wear a monitoring bracelet on her ankle.

Nowak was arrested in February for allegedly pepper-spraying Colleen Shipman, the girlfriend of astronaut William Oefelein, who had also had an intimate relationship with Nowak. NASA threw both Nowak and Oefelein out of the astronaut corps after the incident. She faces charges of attempted kidnapping and burglary with assault, which could earn her life in prison.

On Friday, Nowak spoke publicly for the first time since her arrest on Feb. 5. Looking anxious and pale, she testified that she seldom goes to public places for fear that the siren on her ankle bracelet will sound. If the alarm goes off and she hasn't replaced the device's battery quickly enough, a staffer of the monitoring company speaks to her from the bracelet. That forces her to leave meetings or pull over on the highway so she can bend her ankle to her face to reply, she testified.

Nowak promised to stay away from Brevard County, Fla., where Shipman lives and works, if the bracelet is removed.

Lykkeback told the judge that Nowak's frame of mind has changed since she confronted Shipman.

"The emotions of the moment in February were, perhaps, well-served by the GPS device," Lykkeback conceded. "We are now well past that."

Shipman, also making her first public appearance since the alleged attack, asked the judge to leave the monitoring bracelet on.

"When I'm home alone, and there's nobody with me, it is a comfort," she testified. Asked by state's attorney Pamela Davis whether she is afraid of Nowak, she said, "Yes."

When Nowak was arrested, police say they found a buck knife, plastic tubing, a BB gun and garbage bags in Nowak's duffle bag and car. Detective William Becton also testifed that when he found dirty diapers in Nowak's trunk, he feared a child might be missing but Nowak quickly reassured him.

"She said she used the diapers to pee, so she didn't have to make as many stops," Becton said. Lykkeback has said in the past that the diapers had been soiled as the Nowak family, which includes a teenaged son and twin girls who are now 5 or 6, fled Hurricane Rita in 2005.

By Becton's account, he spoke to Nowak for up to five hours after her arrest. He does not dispute that he repeatedly asked her for the location of her car, a blue BMW, nor does he dispute that he said he would help her if she spoke with him.

"My impression was that the car was going to be searched no matter what, there was no choice in the matter," Nowak said.

Becton did read Nowak her constitutional rights — the right to a lawyer, the right not to speak to the authorities. The detective said that far from seeming exhausted or unhinged, the astronaut often got the better of him during the interview.

"She was very calculating and methodical" in answering questions, he said. "I felt like I was playing a game of chess."