Less than two weeks after Marilyn Hartman was granted freedom to transfer out of a high-security locked psychiatric facility, the so-called "serial stowaway" was ordered held on $200,000 bond following another airport arrest.
Hartman was arrested on trespassing charges around 2:30 p.m. Wednesday when her electronic monitoring bracelet alerted authorities she had violated one of the restrictions placed on her new living guidelines. She had been ordered to stay away from Chicago's O'Hare and Midway airports, Union Station and the Greyhound Bus stops.
The 64-year-old was found at O'Hare's bus shuttle center and placed in custody. She appeared in bond court at 9 a.m. Thursday, where she was formally charged with felony probation violation and misdemeanor criminal trespass.
"As soon as she is given freedom of movement, she goes back," assistant state's attorney Jeff Allen said Thursday. "Her history is, once she's released she goes back."
Following a series of bizarre episodes at O’Hare and Midway airports last year, Hartman spent at least 145 days at Cook County Jail. She was later sentenced to mental health probation with a caveat that she must stay away from so-called "exclusion zones."
At a Feb. 4 hearing, Cook County Judge William Raines agreed to relax restrictions on Hartman’s mental health confinement, allowing her transfer from the locked mental health nursing facility on Chicago's West Side, where she had been living since December, to another facility where she would be allowed to come and go as she pleased. Raines hoped it would help Hartman to get to a place where she could begin a migration back into the community.
In granting her conditional release, Raines warned Hartman that "a lot of time and energy" had been spent on making sure she got the help she needed, and he advised her to follow the court's instructions, otherwised they would be forced to send her to jail.
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“Clients who are in treatment they have relapses," said Parle Roe-Taylor, Hartman's attorney. "And we have to make sure they are getting the right treatment along the way.”
Taylor noted that Hartman's arrest has been difficult, but that officials believe she is making progress.
"This is a difficult time for her, especially having no family available who comes, who's here for her,” he said.
Hartman has tried to get past security at Chicago's O'Hare Airport numerous times, most recently in July of last year.
Hartman also has had several run-ins at San Francisco International Airport and Mineta San Jose International Airport, where she once successfully slipped past security and boarded a Southwest Airlines flight to Los Angeles in 2014. San Mateo County authorities ordered Hartman, who was homeless, to a residential mental health program instead of jail in order to afford her a place to live and a way to access services, but she left there within a week. Her illegal airport escapades have also occurred in Los Angeles, Phoenix and Florida.
Last month in Chicago, Hartman told NBC5 Investigates that she wanted nothing more than to stop the transient life she has led for the last decade. Hartman said at the time she hoped to use her newfound freedom to make frequent use of a nearby library, or perhaps take computer training courses at Truman College.
"I prefer never to see you again," Raines told Hartman in last month's hearing. "People are trying to help you ... I’m not trying to be your dad. I’m doing everything in my power to keep you out of jail."
Now, it appears that warning was prophetic. She could face up to a year in jail.
