‘Serial stowaway’ gets probation for most recent flight trespass
Lawyer optimistic that this will be woman’s final criminal case
Marilyn Hartman, the silverhaired 67-year-old who became an international media phenomenon for her skills at sneaking onto airplanes, was sentenced Tuesday to 18 months probation after pleading guilty to a criminal trespassing charge.
The plea deal closes out two cases pending in Cook County, and comes just over a year after Hartman was arrested after sneaking aboard a British Airways flight to London’s Heathrow Airport. Three days later, while on electronic monitoring on bond for a theft charge related to her illicit ride to England, she again was caught wandering at O’Hare Airport.
“I do apologize for the airport … for causing problems,” Hartman said before Judge Peggy Chiampas handed down the sentence.
Chiampas congratulated Hartman on a glowing progress report from staff of A Safe Haven, the mental health facility where Hartman has been living since last summer. Chiampas recalled that she had served as a bond court judge at one of Hartman’s previous arrests for sneaking onto airport grounds years ago — and that Hartman had then defied Chiampas’ order to stay away from the airport.
“Those were different circumstances,” Chiampas said. “A Safe Haven has been your safe haven, and I am really proud of the progress you have made.”
Hartman was deemed unfit to stand trial and spent four months at a state mental institution in Elgin after a county psychologist said she suffered delusions that she was being persecuted and had “preoccupation with media attention.” Court officials said Hartman was responding well to treatment, and in July, Hartman was moved to a halfway house-style mental health center near the Leighton Criminal Court Building.
In the courtroom gallery before her hearing Tuesday, Hartman chatted cheerfully with her case worker and spectators. An electronic monitoring anklet peeking from the leg of her gray sweat pants, Hartman said she hoped to find an apartment in Chicago or the nearby suburbs. Hartman had lost her spot in a senior housing facility in Grayslake after her arrest.
Hartman’s plea deal bars her from O’Hare or Midway airports — unless she has a ticket for a flight. She could face up to three years in prison if she violates her probation.
As Hartman headed to the basement of the courthouse after the hearing to have two electronic monitoring devices removed from her ankles, her lawyer said she was optimistic that this would be Hartman’s last criminal case.
“I think we all hope that this has worked and that she’s in a good place,” said her attorney, Assistant Public Defender Parle Roe-Taylor. “She is doing really well with all the things that are being required of her. I have no reason to think that she will return, but I also don’t have a crystal ball.’’