An attorney for former NASA
astronaut Lisa Nowak has filed for a rehearing with the 5th District Court of
Appeal.
The filing comes two weeks after the
court
allowed evidence found in Nowak's car to be allowed at trial.
Nowak is charged
with attempted kidnapping, battery and attempted burglary with assault.
Authorities say Nowak drove from Houston to Orlando International Airport the
weekend of Feb. 5, 2007, to confront Air Force Capt. Colleen Shipman about
their mutual love interest, former astronaut Bill Oefelein. Shipman was
returning from a trip to visit Oefelein.
Trial Judge Marc Lubet ruled late last year that Orlando Police Detective Chris
Becton did not properly read Nowak her Miranda rights and that he tricked her
into leading them to her car. Becton found maps from Houston to Orlando
International Airport, along with directions to Shipman's home in Cape
Canaveral, inside Nowak's car.
The appeals court agreed with Lubet on the Miranda rights issue, but disagreed
that the search of
her car was illegal. The three-judge panel said the car would have been
found in the La Quinta Inn parking lot anyway, without Nowak's help.
Nowak's attorney, Donald Lykkebak, filed a motion this morning, saying that he
police had not already started searching for the car when Nowak led them to it,
which makes using evidence found in it illegal.
"During the several hours of interrogation, no one went to the La Quinta Inn,
nor did a search of the airport lots begin until after Becton learned from her
that she had driven," Lykkebak wrote. "Had the defendant lied and told Becton
she flew, it is pure speculation that anyone would have gone to the La Quinta
parking lot."
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