Ex-astronaut's lawyer says diaper tale is 'big lie'

Orlando (Fla), June 30: The attorney for former NASA astronaut Lisa Nowak said his client's right to a fair trial is being jeopardized by a ''big lie'' that she wore a diaper during a nonstop 950-mile (1,530-mile) drive to confront a romantic rival.

Nowak, who flew on a space shuttle mission last year, was arrested on Feb 6 in Orlando on charges of assaulting and trying to kidnap an Air Force captain she saw as competition for the affections of fellow astronaut William Oefelein. In March, NASA fired Nowak, who has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

At the time of her arrest, police said she drove from Houston to Orlando International Airport, wearing a diaper to avoid a bathroom stop, to confront Colleen Shipman after learning she was seeing Oefelein.

''The media has repeated this preposterous and scandalous story that she drove from Houston to Orlando nonstop wearing a diaper,'' attorney Donald Lykkebak told reporters outside an Orlando courtroom yesterday.

''It holds my client up to ridicule. It jeopardizes our ability to pick a jury. It jeopardizes our ability to get a fair trial when the client is the butt of jokes.'' Lykkebak limited questions from reporters and was vague on whether Nowak ever used a diaper on her drive, but said that prosecutors have not entered a diaper as evidence in the case.

''The officer did not investigate the diaper. The diaper is not in evidence,'' Lykkebak said. ''If the diaper was important, why was it not in evidence? Why didn't the officer seize it and investigate it?'' Lykkebak and prosecutors were in court for a status hearing on Nowak's Sept. 24 trial on attempted kidnapping, battery and burglary against Shipman. Lykkebak filed two motions on Friday, which will be argued at a future hearing.

He asked the judge to dismiss evidence seized in a police search of Nowak's car and a statement Nowak gave investigators after her arrest on the grounds that her right to refuse to speak and to be informed of her rights were violated.

After the hearing, Lykkebak, talking to reporters, acknowledged that Nowak had relieved herself in a toddler diaper in 2005 when she, her husband and then-toddler children evacuated their Houston home ahead of a hurricane, and he did not deny that a diaper might have been found in Nowak's car at the time of her 2007 arrest.

Police initially charged Nowak with attempted murder and kidnapping. But prosecutors did not file an attempted murder charge when they formalized the allegations against her nearly a month later.

Reuters>