Serial Stowaway Headed to Trial in Chicago

Marilyn Hartman, the so-called “serial stowaway” who has confounded and infuriated airport personnel across America, is headed for trial in Chicago.

Hartman was released from Cook County Jail last Thursday night, two months after her arrest for repeated attempts at getting past security at O’Hare and Midway. As she walked out of the jail gates, Hartman swore her stowaway days were over.

Then she was spotted at Midway the very next day.

“Ms. Hartman, I would like to say it’s good to see you, but I can’t say that,” a clearly perturbed Judge William Raines told Hartman as she was led before him Thursday morning. “I thought we’d agreed that I would not see you again!”

Police said Hartman actually walked up to an officer at Midway last Friday and introduced herself, declaring, “Do you know who I am? I’m a celebrity!” As they watched, she bought a plane ticket at Midway, and was escorted to the gate by Chicago Police.

But after boarding the aircraft, Hartman reportedly stood up and began ranting to her fellow passengers that “they’re in a war,” and that she didn’t feel safe without a helmet. The captain of the New York bound flight returned to the gate, and she was escorted off the plane.

Hartman was released on her own recognizance, but the very next day, she was spotted at O’Hare.

Sources said she was seen in at least three different terminals. She was arrested before she could attempt to slip through security, and this time, her bond was set at $100,000.

“I’m at my wit’s end,” the judge told Hartman in court Thursday. “The issue is what do we do?”

He told the 63-year-old Hartman he had no choice but to set her case for trial.

“Chances are you’re going to go to jail,” he said. “We’ve done everything we can to keep you out of jail, but what recourse do we have?”

Hartman’s court-ordered psychiatric exam, obtained by NBC 5 Investigates, certifies her as “mentally fit with medication.”

“Currently she does not manifest any active symptoms or signs of a mental illness,” Dr. Matthew Markos wrote on June 17. “She is cognizant of the charge, understands the nature and purpose of the court proceedings, and shows the ability to cooperate with counsel in her defense.”

Markos said it was his opinion that at the time of her previous offenses at O’Hare and Midway airports, “Marilyn Hartman was not suffering from a mental disease or defect which would have caused her to lack substantial capacity to appreciate the criminality of her conduct. Therefore, it is my opinion that she was legally sane.”

Sheriff Tom Dart, an outspoken critic of the way the criminal justice system deals with the mentally ill, argues that it’s obvious that system needs to find a new way of dealing with Hartman.

“Here’s somebody who’s exhibited this behavior numerous times, and why is it that the system that we have can’t do something about it?” Dart asks. “The plan isn’t just kick the person back out to the street and then just wait for the person to reappear at an airport. The person’s clearly shown that’s what’s going to happen!”

“I’m not exactly sure what her issues are, or what’s driving her behavior, but she has been offered a lot of help,” Assistant State’s Attorney Jennifer Coleman said after court. “One of the judges offered to have her released on electronic monitoring. That very same day the sheriff’s office identified a place for her to go. She refused to go. They identified a residential treatment facility for her to go to after she was released from custody and she refused to go.”

“There’s not much else we can do except to keep her away from airports, where she causes disturbances with the TSA,” she said.

But Dart argues that Hartman’s case screams out for a new approach. 

"There has to be a thoughtful plan put in place here,” he said. “Otherwise, this will be a never ending story, it’s never going to change, until someone actually is going to get hurt somewhere along the line.”

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