Clear Lake Texas barely registers on a map anymore after being obsorbed by Houston for tax purposes. Clear Lake is known for NASA's Johnson Space Center and for being a nice place to live. However, that image has been repeatedly tarnished of late after super mom Andrea Yates drowned her five children in her bathtub, and after Dr. Clara Harris ran over orthodonist husband, Dr, David Harris, three times in a Hilton parking lot for allegedly chaeating on her.
Now the latest in a bizare trend continues as United States Navy Captain and Astronaut Lisa Nowak put on an Astronaut's diaper and drove 900 miles to apparently do harm to United States Air Force Captain Colleen Shipman in Orlando Florida, for allegedly catching the eye and the affection of United States Navy Commander and Astronaut William Oefelein.
On February 7, 2007, I joined many of my other nosy neighbors and a large contingent of media members and conducted a vigil ouside of Capt. Nowak's expensive home. Bullentin's were being yelled out as to the wherabout's of Captain Nowak, the first about 8:15 a.m. was that her plane had landed at Bush Intercontinnental Airport; this was followed by another announcement that she had been escourted out of the plane by police and was receiving a courtesy ride home by them. No one seemed surprised by this as she was is an astronaut, and with that status comes perks. Then the media helicopters started hovering overhead and someone yelled out she must be close. At that precise second two of Captain Novak's female neigbors walked shoulder to shoulder through the press and to Novak's front door, they were carrying blinds and milk. One of the ladies reached down and retrieved Captain Nowak's key from under the mat and then proceeded to open the door. For the next 30 minutes the press took pictures of these ladies lowering existing blinds and putting up new ones. Then another reporter yelled out they brought her to Johnson Space Center for a psychiatric evaluation and a physical, and the helicopters could be seen flying two miles South over Johnson Space Center air space; at that point I left as I knew how long such physicals take.
Astronauts at NASA and in America are the chosen few, and when I was a Senior Special Agent for the NASA Office of Inspector General I had authorization to go anywhere and speak to anyone but astronauts. The only time I was permitted to speak to a NASA astronaut was when I had a case that pertained to one of them, or they spoke to me or when we met socially off center. Half of the coaches in Clear Lake often appear to be astronauts and my sons had a few astronaut coaches, and they were good guys.
As a criminal defense attorney, Constituional Law instructor, Memeber of the Texas Criminal Justice Advisory Committee on Medical and Mental Impairments and as a Retired Senior Special Agent with NASA's Office of Inspector General (OIG) I know about crime, criminals, and mental ilness, but I never thought I would have to include astronauts in that list before. These hard hard days for NASA, and the world didn't need to know that astronauts wear diapers and occasionally soil them.
