The Criminal Liability of Lisa Nowak

The Criminal Liability of Lisa Nowak

By Philip Averbuck

Spec./Capt. Lisa Nowak faces serious legal jeopardy in Florida.
After reading the arrest/charging affidavits, I have to wonder
at some of the commentary out there. Jeffrey Fieger appeared on
Good Morning America Friday and told the audience that, "at
most, she might be guilty of an assault and battery." Here in
Florida, those charges are both misdemeanors, punishable by a
maximum of 14 months in the county jail (12 for the battery, 2
for the assault.)

Counselor Fieger was grossly mistaken.

Based on the contents of the bag that was recovered from the
trash can (after a policeman saw Capt. Nowak dump it in there),
the [utterly credible] victim's statement, Capt. Nowak's
post-Miranda statement, and the statutes here in Florida, these
are the charges she could be convicted of in a heartbeat, and
their concomitant maximum prison penalties in Florida:

Florida Statutes 787.02 False imprisonment (5 years)
Florida Statutes 790.07 Persons engaged in criminal
offense, having weapons (5 years)
Florida Statutes 812.133 Carjacking, armed (Life)
Florida Statutes 787.01 Kidnapping, armed (Life)
Florida Statutes 810.02 Burglary, with assault/battery,
armed (Life)

Mr. Fieger put a lot of emphasis on Capt. Nowak's claim that she
had only brought the weapons (steel mallet, knife, real-looking
BB pistol) in order to "scare" her victim so she'd talk to her.
Uhhhhhh, this is exactly what constitutes a false imprisonment
or kidnapping, the unlawful confinement of a victim (by
well-founded fear, in this case--assuming Capt. Nowak never
would have actually used the tubing she had bought to tie up her
victim).

Mr. Fieger had a valid point, in that the attempted first degree
murder charge that Capt. Nowak is facing is probably excessive.
But so what? This parade of potential life felonies doesn't
need any enhancement..."Hey, Lisa, good news! The judge threw
out the attempted murder charge! Now we're only sunk on 2 or 3
other life felonies!"

Did I mention that we don't have parole here in Florida?

Apart from her extraordinary life story, Capt. Nowak has
horrific equities surrounding her case: long-term
premeditation; stunningly precise planning and execution of her
plan; focus on a completely innocent victim; carrying out her
plan all the way, even to the point of pepper-spraying the
victim when she unwisely rolled her car window down speak to the
"tearful" Capt. Nowak; making an enormous physical effort to
complete the plan; a written list of the items needed to
complete the plan (too bad she didn't add one last item to the
list: "When other items are purchased, BURN THIS LIST!"); and
a great effort to conceal her identity.

I've made it a point to ask many Florida prosecutors one
question over the years: "What portion of our cases involve (1)
a defendant who is genuinely guilty, (2) doing/attempting to do
something genuinely harmful, (3) to someone who is genuinely
innocent?" The answer is always, "Oh, about 20-25%."
Unfortunately, Capt. Nowak falls into this category...and the
evidence against her is overwhelming.

Fortunately for her, her life story may just pull her future out
of the fire. I predict that she will eventually plead guilty to
the 2 lesser felonies (it will keep her scoresheet points down),
or perhaps a stipulated reduced charge of aggravated battery
(15-year max), with her sentence to be begun in a lockdown
mental facility. Then a lengthy probation--4-8 years.

Her life will be ruined in the short term, but unlike so many of
my defendants, she she will have a chance to rebuild it outside
of the Florida State Prison system.

Philip Averbuck is a criminal defense attorney who practices in
Polk County, Florida.
Page Printed from:
http://www.americanthinker.com/2007/...y_of_lisa.html
at February 10, 2007 - 03:32:44 PM EST

"Wok" wrote in message
...
The Criminal Liability of Lisa Nowak




Fortunately for her, her life story may just pull her future out
of the fire. I predict that she will eventually plead guilty to
the 2 lesser felonies (it will keep her scoresheet points down),
or perhaps a stipulated reduced charge of aggravated battery
(15-year max), with her sentence to be begun in a lockdown
mental facility. Then a lengthy probation--4-8 years.

I'm not so sure it'll go that well for her.
The premeditation will make any incompetence defense
difficult, so I don't see a psychiatric prison in here future.

In Florida there's little sympathy for first time offenses for
violent crimes. And the high profile nature of the case will
only cause the prosecutors to want a long and very public
trial. With so much evidence the prosecution doesn't
need to cut any deals, she'll have to go to trial
and hope for a sympathetic jury.

I doubt she'll get less than ten to fifteen hard time for what
she did, if not life. It's what she deserves and what other
people routinely get for attempted murder. If the story
we're told so far is true, it looks pretty obvious she was
planning kidnapping, murder and disposing of the
body.




Her life will be ruined in the short term, but unlike so many of
my defendants, she she will have a chance to rebuild it outside
of the Florida State Prison system.

Philip Averbuck is a criminal defense attorney who practices in
Polk County, Florida.
Page Printed from:
http://www.americanthinker.com/2007/...y_of_lisa.html
at February 10, 2007 - 03:32:44 PM EST

Looks like her astronaut career is history...

On Sat, 10 Feb 2007 21:17:44 GMT, robert casey wrote:

Looks like her astronaut career is history...


And how did you arrive at that conclusion??

In article ,
Burnham Treezdown wrote:
Looks like her astronaut career is history...

And how did you arrive at that conclusion??

It happened the moment she appeared on the front page as a psycho killer
astronaut. Embarrassing NASA in public has always been a career killer
for astronauts.
--
spsystems.net is temporarily off the air; | Henry Spencer
mail to henry at zoo.utoronto.ca instead. |

"Wok" wrote in message
...
Florida Statutes 787.02 False imprisonment (5 years)
Florida Statutes 790.07 Persons engaged in criminal
offense, having weapons (5 years)
Florida Statutes 812.133 Carjacking, armed (Life)
Florida Statutes 787.01 Kidnapping, armed (Life)
Florida Statutes 810.02 Burglary, with assault/battery,
armed (Life)

Me thinks that she'll end up only facing one or two (reduced) assault and
battery charges...

Assault, with pepper spray, is all she really did...

Stupidity (unfortunetly) isn't a crime...

Burnham Treezdown wrote:

On Sat, 10 Feb 2007 21:17:44 GMT, robert casey wrote:


Looks like her astronaut career is history...



And how did you arrive at that conclusion??


Oh, just a scientific wild ass guess (SWAG)...

In sci.space.policy Wok wrote:
The Criminal Liability of Lisa Nowak

By Philip Averbuck

Spec./Capt. Lisa Nowak faces serious legal jeopardy in Florida.
After reading the arrest/charging affidavits, I have to wonder
at some of the commentary out there. Jeffrey Fieger appeared on
snip
But so what? This parade of potential life felonies doesn't
need any enhancement..."Hey, Lisa, good news! The judge threw
out the attempted murder charge! Now we're only sunk on 2 or 3
other life felonies!"

Did I mention that we don't have parole here in Florida?

What an opportunity!

She's an ideal candidate for the new Lunar Penal Colony.

Debating Lisa Nowak's future is pointless.

Unless she is declared innocent within months, she is either never
returning to NASA, or would be returning at a time where all the crews for
the remaining shuttle flights will have been assigned.

And even if she returned, her episode would make her unacceptable for fligt
since she has proven she can switch from normal to "nuts" without warning.

Wok wrote:

Florida Statutes 787.02 False imprisonment (5 years)
Florida Statutes 790.07 Persons engaged in criminal
offense, having weapons (5 years)
Florida Statutes 812.133 Carjacking, armed (Life)
Florida Statutes 787.01 Kidnapping, armed (Life)
Florida Statutes 810.02 Burglary, with assault/battery,
armed (Life)

A few more points to consider:

Reportedly, she already admitted to the cops that she had been stalking
Ms. Shipman for 2 months prior to this attack. So you can add a guilty
plea for that onto what you've already listed here. The legal term is
"criminal harassment" or "criminal menace," and every state in the
Union, Florida included, now has made such stalking illegal. If the
stalking results in actual harm to the victim, as was the case here
thanks to her spraying Mace on the victim, the penalties for stalking
rise further.

For an insanity defense, having a psychiatrist testify that "Ms. Nowak
has problems" won't be sufficient. For an insanity defense to be
legally acceptable, Lisa Nowak would have to establish that she either
didn't know what she was doing, or she didn't know it was illegal. The
fact that she deliberately wore a disguise to hide her identity is going
to make that impossible.

I wouldn't be surprised if the cops have some additional piece of
evidence they're withholding from the media for the moment, that
accounts for why they decided to stick her with a murder charge. It
could be something she wrote in her letter to Oefelein, the full text of
which hasn't been released to the media, that implied she was going to
get rid of Shipman or something.

The saddest part of all this:
Whatever jail time she gets, won't be in one of those minimum-security
"country club" prisons like the one Martha Stewart went to, for insider
trading. Lisa Nowak will be going to a women's prison for violent
offenders. And she is going to find the conditions in there rather
distressing for someone of her background.


--
Steven D. Litvintchouk
Email:
Remove the NOSPAM before replying to me.