A Montgomery County grand jury is scheduled to consider charges of aggravated burglary and assault on a peace officer against Hawbecker. He is the resident agent in charge of the Computer Forensic Lab in the Inspector General’s Office at NASA.
A University of Dayton police officer testified during a preliminary hearing on March 6 that Hawbecker took a swing at the officer after being awakened in the early-morning hours of Feb. 27 at a woman’s off-campus apartment.
UD police officer Christopher Ware, who said he wore a body camera during the incident, also testified that Hawbecker said the officers were “going to regret this.”
Hawbecker, who has been placed on administrative leave from NASA, has two mortgages and is engaged to be married in June, according to a motion filed by his attorney.
“He’s got to foot the expense of living here. He’s no longer receiving a paycheck,” said defense attorney William Gallagher, who also waived speedy trial rights. “The longer he’s away, the more precarious his employment situation is.”
Gallagher sought to get Hawbecker released from EHDP and allow him to travel home, but to surrender his passport. Hawbecker posted a $50,000 surety bond after a Dayton Municipal Court judge lowered the original bond of $500,000.
Gallagher wrote that Hawbecker “is not a threat to anyone if bond is modified.” Hawbecker is a decorated Air Force combat veteran who served in Iraq and has held a high level security clearance since the age of 18, Gallaher wrote.
The motion said allegations are that Hawbecker was invited to a Fairground Avenue apartment by a woman he met at Timothy’s bar on Brown Street. The woman initially told police Hawbecker tried to choke her but that police saw no marks.
After Hawbecker was arrested, he was alleged to have been incoherent, unable to walk without assistance and very confused and that “the residents of the home were not in favor of charges being filed,” Gallagher wrote.
“He’s anxious,” Gallagher said Friday.
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