Serial Stowaway To Be Released, But Ordered To Stay Away From Airports
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A Cook County judge has reduced bond for serial stowaway Marilyn Hartman, and dropped a requirement she be placed on electronic monitoring, nearly two weeks after she again slipped past security at O'Hare International Airport, this time managing to fly to London without a ticket or passport.
Marilyn Hartman, 66, snuck onto a British Airways flight on Jan. 14, but when she arrived in London without a passport, authorities sent her back to Chicago, where she was charged with trespassing and theft.
A judge last week effectively agreed to release her on a $25,000 i-bond, but ordered her placed on electronic monitoring. On Thursday, a judge removed the electronic monitoring requirement, and allowed her to go home to Grayslake on a $10,000 i-bond, noting she had no criminal convictions in Illinois in the past two years.
Hartman's public defender said her client will not be on electronic monitoring when she goes home to Grayslake, despite the recommendation of pretrial services in Cook County.
"Cook County is not able to give oversight to people in other counties. It's a completely different jurisdiction, and so the court made the decision – upon my request – to vacate that portion of the order," assistant public defender Parle Roe-Taylor said.
The judge told Hartman one condition of her bond was that she stay away from O'Hare and Midway airports, and she said she could.
The judge also said jail is not a nice place, and Hartman quietly agreed while dressed in her jailhouse blues.
However, Hartman has previously insisted she could stay away from airports after being caught trying to stow away on planes, only to be caught again and again.
Hartman's latest security breech began in Terminal 3 on Jan. 14. Around 2 p.m., she's seen on security tape at Checkpoint 7A.
Once through security, she tries to board a flight to Connecticut. Waiting in line, Hartman hides behind a passenger, but when she attempts to dart down the ramp, the ticket agent stops her and tells her to sit down.
Hartman leaves and is next seen on video boarding a shuttle bus to Terminal 5. Authorities don't explain how she got on the bus; passengers are supposed to show a boarding pass and passport.
Authorities assume Hartman spent the night at Terminal 5 because the next day, Jan. 15, she's seen at the British Airways gate, M12, where Flight 294 is headed to London.
As an agent is checking passports, Hartman slips past, hides in a small room for just a few seconds and then heads down the ramp. She finds an empty seat on board a plane. When it takes off, Hartman is on board.
Customs authorities in London stopped Hartman, who did not have a passport. She was sent back to Chicago late last week.
Hartman also was arrested in February 2016 after trespassing at O'Hare, and was sentenced to six months of house arrest in a mental health facility for violating previous court orders to stay away from airports, but she walked away from that facility more than once.
She has said in the past that she is homeless and struggles with mental illness.
