Judge Denies Request To Release 'Serial Stowaway' Marilyn Hartman
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A Cook County judge ruled 66-year-old Marilyn Hartman must remain in jail for now, denying her defense attorney's request to send her to a shelter for homeless former inmates.
Hartman has been held without bail since Jan. 28, when she was arrested at O'Hare International Airport, after sneaking past security for the second time in two weeks. Hartman has been arrested several times over the past few years for trespassing at airports and -- to varying degrees of success -- trying to sneak onto airplanes.
At a hearing on her case Wednesday morning, Assistant Cook County Public Defender Parle Roe-Taylor argued Hartman does not belong in jail, because she is not a danger to society, and has been polite and cooperative with authorities whenever she has been arrested.
Roe-Taylor asked the judge to place Hartman on electronic monitoring and send her to a shelter run by A Safe Haven, a non-profit that provides housing for former jail inmates who are homeless or suffer substance abuse problems.
However, Cook County Judge Donald Panarese Jr. said Hartman has not been cooperative with him, noting she trespassed at O'Hare only three days after he released her from custody, breaking her promise to stay away from airports. Panarese said he did not trust the Safe Haven shelter could ensure Hartman doesn't violate court orders again.
On Jan. 14, Hartman slipped by a distracted TSA agent in O'Hare's Terminal 3, somehow made it to the international terminal and, after spending the night there, slipped past a busy gate agent to board a British Airways flight to London without a passport or boarding pass. She was arrested when she arrived at Heathrow Airport, and was brought back to Chicago to face criminal charges.
After being held in custody for more than a week, Panarese released her on Jan. 25, after warning her three times to stay away from airports. Despite promising the judge she would, Hartman was caught trespassing at O'Hare three days later. Employees in the area of the airport that caters to privately owned airplanes spotted Hartman and told her to leave, but she refused, so employees called police. She left before officers arrived, but was caught a short time later in Terminal 3.
During Wednesday's hearing, prosecutors announced Hartman had been formally indicted on felony charges in connection to sneaking onto the British Airways flight and flying to London.
Another judge already has ordered Hartman to undergo a psychiatric evaluation to determine her sanity at the time she allegedly committed the crimes, as well as if she is fit to stand trial with or without medication.
Hartman is due back in court on Feb. 21.
