Defense Attorney Asks To Have Serial Stowaway Marilyn Hartman Released From Jail And Returned To Halfway House; Judge Refuses
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A defense attorney on Monday asked to have serial stowaway Marilyn Hartman released from jail and placed back on electronic monitoring, but a judge refused.
Hartman was ordered back to jail after she was able to sneak away from a halfway house in March to go to O'Hare International Airport.
The latest arrest came just two days after we heard Hartman speak for the first time in an interview with CBS 2 Investigator Brad Edwards.
In court Monday, Hartman's attorney – Cook County Assistant Public Defender Parle Roe-Taylor – asked to have Hartman's bond reduced so that she could return to the halfway house – A Safe Haven. Roe-Taylor said Hartman's doctor and the program manager at the halfway house both wrote letters to the court in support of Hartman's return there.
The program manager even noted they could put Hartman in a more secure location with constant camera and offer her an additional therapist.
Roe-Taylor indicated that while in jail, Hartman can get her medications – but does not get access to her doctor for therapy. Roe-Taylor also brought up the reasons for Hartman's escape on March 16, 2021 as a missed therapy appointment, a television news report, and other stressors including feeling depressed which made her go back to O'Hare.
But a Cook County Assistant State's Attorney given her escape that day, there is no guarantee that Hartman will not escape again if she goes back to the halfway house.
Cook County Judge Peggy Chiampas expressed compassion toward Hartman, but also frustration at her history. Chiampas recounted the criminal cases against Hartman – from a 2018 incident in which she got on a flight to London without a ticket, to a 2019 arrest when Hartman was caught again at O'Hare when she had been ordered not to come back, and finally to the latest escape.
The judge advised that the court had made it very clear that Hartman is not to come anywhere near any airport, in particular Midway or O'Hare International Airport, if she is not a ticketed passenger.
The judge said Hartman's latest escape is not an aberration, but part of a pattern. She further said Hartman refuses to honor and respect court orders – not once or twice, but repeatedly.
The judge also seemed to admonish Roe-Taylor for bringing up Edwards' report about Hartman. Judge Chiampas said she would not take into account any news program because it's not written in the defense motion.
The judge seemed aggravated by the attempt to send Hartman back to A Safe Haven – saying that there are other defendants who could benefit from being there, but Hartman was afforded that placement and did not comply.
Thus, Chiampas refused to grant the defense motion to place Hartman back at the halfway house and set a new status date for May 25.
When Hartman escaped from the halfway house in March, a source told Edwards that Hartman's ankle bracelet was apparently not initially pinging — so she snuck away from the halfway house.
The Cook County Sheriff's office reported its Electronic Monitoring Unit investigators tracked her movement by the GPS on her ankle bracelet. The sheriff's office was notified that Hartman had left the residential facility, and began looking for her right away.
Sheriff's office staff tried to contact Hartman with the phone built into her electronic monitoring device, but she didn't answer. But they did learn she was headed for O'Hare.
The sheriff's office said they notified Chicago Police that Hartman appeared to be headed to the airport and was in the area of Terminal 1 at 1:38 p.m.
A source said the Transportation Security Administration is familiar enough with Hartman that they spotted her and notified law enforcement. She made it to Terminal 2, but did not get farther than that. Meanwhile, an alarm siren was activated on Hartman's device and she was taken into custody, the sheriff's office said.
Hartman did not enter any secure areas, the sheriff's office said.
As prosecutors noted, Hartman has been arrested multiple times at O'Hare International Airport.
Among other incidents, she was sentenced to 18 months of probation in March after pleading guilty in March 2019 to sneaking past Chicago airport security, boarding a plane and flying to London without a ticket the year before.
She was arrested again in October 2019 after being spotted at Terminal 1, Checkpoint 2 at O'Hare and was seen attempting to pass through security without a boarding pass or identification. Police said by then, Hartman was on probation for a prior trespass incident and was prohibited from going to O'Hare or Midway international airports without a boarding pass.
In late March 2020, Hartman was released from Cook County Jail and put on home monitoring after being attacked at the jail, and also after the coronavirus pandemic became a concern for inmates.
Edwards talked exclusively with Hartman beginning in October 2019 for a report that aired this past Sunday night. She told Edwards she thought she had taken at least 30 flights over the years.
The CBS 2 Investigators -- through a series of sources, public records requests, Ms. Hartman's recollections, and more -- compiled a forensic accounting of her free rides. She went to Jacksonville, Seattle, Phoenix, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Minneapolis, San Francisco, and even London.
She said it began in 2002. Hartman recalled, "The first time I was able to to get through I flew to Copenhagen" and, "The second time I flew into Paris."
It wasn't until some 12 years later that she popped on the radar of law enforcement, when she flew, sans ticket, flew from San Jose to Los Angeles on Aug. 14, 2014. A judge then warned her, don't do it again.