‘Serial stowaway’ Marilyn Hartman arrested again at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport
‘Serial stowaway’ Marilyn Hartman is being held without bond following her arrest at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport on Tuesday after she left the residential facility where she was being electronically monitored.
The Cook County Sheriff’s Office told CNN in a statement that it was notified that she had left the facility around noon Tuesday, and that electronic monitoring staff immediately began trying to find her location.
“Staff attempted to contact Hartman using the phone built into the device, but Hartman did not answer,” the statement said. “Electronic Monitoring Unit Investigators found that her device indicated she was traveling in the direction of O’Hare International Airport.”
As investigators headed to the airport, the sheriff’s office notified the Chicago Police Department that Hartman appeared to be headed to the airport, according to the statement. Around 1:38 p.m., police were notified that Hartman was close to Terminal 1.
An alarm was activated on her ankle monitoring device and she was detained by Chicago police officers, the statement said. Hartman did not enter any secure areas, the sheriff’s office said.
Hartman, 69, was returned to the Cook County Jail. Hartman appeared in Cook County Circuit Court on Thursday, according to her attorney Parle Roe-Taylor. Hartman is not able to post bond or be released at this time, Roe-Taylor said.
Hartman is currently being held on two bonds, Roe-Taylor told CNN in an email Thursday. One is $100,000 for an escape charge stemming from her arrest on Tuesday and the other is a “no bond” hold for violations of her parole conditions and bail bond.
“Even if she were able to post bond on the one matter, she would still not be released because of the ‘no bond’ holds,” Roe-Taylor said.
Hartman is due back in court on March 22 and again on April 7, according to Roe-Taylor.
On Wednesday, Roe-Taylor said that Hartman continues to battle mental health issues and characterized her actions that led to Tuesday’s arrest as a relapse.
“She continues to struggle as a homeless person within a system that is not designed to adequately address the mental health issues Ms. Hartman presents. Until this arrest, Ms. Hartman had been stable for the past year and a half, cooperative and without incident,” Parle Roe-Taylor wrote in an email to CNN on Wednesday.
“Unfortunately, relapse is part of what happens sometimes during treatment. Relapses must be addressed through treatment, and not punitively,” Roe-Taylor wrote.
Roe-Taylor added that Hartman is a nonviolent person “who has not shown to be a risk for harming others.”
Authorities at A Safe Haven, the non-profit home where Hartman has been residing, told CNN affiliate WBBM they had no comment Tuesday on how Hartman managed to leave the residence.
WBBM aired an interview with Hartman two days before her latest arrest.
A trend of airport arrests
Hartman first made national headlines in August 2014, when she was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport for successfully boarding a flight from Mineta San Jose International Airport without a ticket. She pleaded no contest to the charges and was sentenced to probation. The next day she was rearrested at Los Angeles International Airport.
Her streak continued at Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix. On August 14, Hartman was given a warning for trying to enter a security checkpoint without a ticket. Twelve days later, she was arrested in an airport terminal for criminal trespass. A day after that, Hartman was again seen loitering around a security checkpoint, Phoenix police said.
She was arrested in Florida in 2015. Another arrest followed at O’Hare in 2016 for violating her probation, which forbid her from setting foot on airport property. She was sentenced to six months of house arrest in a mental health facility for violating court orders to stay away from airports, WBBM reported.
She was then arrested at O’Hare again in January 2018 after British officials had detained her in London. She was charged with one misdemeanor count of trespassing and one felony count of theft after she succeeded in traveling from Chicago to London without a passport or boarding pass.
In October 2019, she was arrested after she tried to pass through O’Hare’s security without a boarding pass or identification.
WBBM reported that Hartman was released from Cook County Jail and put on home monitoring in March 2020 after being attacked at the jail, and after the coronavirus pandemic became a concern for inmates.
Reporters who have followed her arrests said the success of her evasive maneuvers depends on her ability to blend into a crowd as a seemingly harmless, elderly white woman.
