CHICAGO — A judge on Thursday ordered a 69-year-old woman with a history of stowing away on airliners be held in jail in lieu of $100,000 bail, two days after she was arrested at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, where judges have previously prohibited her from going.
“You didn’t just go for a walk, you went to the one place you specifically can’t go … O’Hare Airport,” Cook County Judge David Navarro told Marilyn Hartman before ordering her held in lieu of $100,000 bail on a charge of escaping from electronic monitoring.
While the order means Hartman would have to post $10,000 to secure her release, she may be in custody until trial because her visit to the airport violated previously bail and probation on earlier cases. She will be held without bail on those issues until at least Monday, when she goes before a judge on those matters.
Thursday’s hearing was the latest chapter in the story of a woman who has for years illegally boarded or tried to board jets at airports across the United States. Two weeks ago, a judge rejected a plea deal that would have given her probation for a previous stowaway attempt. On Tuesday, her electronic monitor was activated when she allegedly left the facility where she was staying, allowing Cook County Sheriff’s deputies to track her and arrest her as she neared the airport on a train.
Hartman’s attorney, Assistant Public Defender Andrea Lubelfeld, said Thursday that Hartman visited the airport for the first time in a year after becoming upset after seeing a TV news interview with her.
“She has a mental illness that was triggered by something out of her control, and she reacted not, perhaps, in making the best choice,” Lubelfeld said, according to the Chicago Tribune. “But I would say her mental illness affects her ability to make choices.”
In the interview with WBBM-TV, she said that she has bipolar disorder. The station tweeted Thursday after the court hearing, “We have her on tape agreeing to do the interviews and record them.”
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