Serial stowaway arrested again at O’Hare

Serial stowaway Marilyn Hartman was back in jail Sunday, just three days after a Cook County judge ordered her to stay away from Chicago airports.

The 66-year-old Grayslake woman was spotted shortly after midnight in an area of the airport that services privately owned planes, Cook County prosecutors said. When she refused to leave, employees called police. She left before officers arrived.

Authorities found Hartman at 1:35 a.m. in the lower level of Terminal 3 and arrested her, prosecutors said. She was ordered held without bail for violating the terms of her bond.

Hartman was released from Cook County Jail on Thursday with a stern warning from Judge Donald Panarese Jr.

“Stay away from O’Hare and Midway,” Panarese told Hartman as he released her on her own recognizance while facing a misdemeanor charge of criminal trespass and a felony theft charge for hopping on a Chicago-to-London flight Jan. 14 without a ticket.

Hartman’s only word during her court appearance Sunday was in response to the judge asking her name.

“Marilyn,” she said quietly.

After the hearing, Hartman yawned as she silently walked out of the courtroom.

Cook County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Sophia Ansari said Hartman wasn’t wearing an electronic ankle monitor because she doesn’t live in Cook County, a requirement for electronic monitoring.

Though Panarese on Thursday had suggested Hartman look into receiving mental health treatment as he reduced her bail and ordered her released from custody, there was no mention of medical attention at Sunday’s hearing.

Hartman will be held in Cook County Jail until at least Wednesday, when she’s due back in court in front of Panarese for the bond violation and her new case stemming from her arrest Sunday.

Hartman has a history of arrests for sneaking onto planes without a ticket and entering restricted areas of airports.

“She is in great need of mental health services and support,” said Cara Smith, Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart’s chief policy adviser.

Staff from the sheriff’s, state’s attorney’s and public defender’s offices will be in touch Monday to brainstorm on producing a “holistic plan” to help Hartman, Smith said.

“Just having a revolving door at the jail and O’Hare and Midway seems ridiculous, so we have to find some way to interrupt that and get her on a good path. . . . I don’t suggest it will be easy, but there has to be some solution here,” Smith said.

Smith summed up Hartman’s very candid assessment of how she’s been able to bamboozle her way through airports: “She said: ‘I’m an old white lady. Nobody stops me.’ ”

In 2015, she spent three separate stints at Cook County Jail, one for three days, another for two months and a third for five months.

On Feb. 18, 2016, she was arrested for probation violation and trespassing at O’Hare, Ansari said. The next month, Hartman was booked for violating her probation and leaving a mental health facility without permission.

A week later, Hartman was sentenced to 364 days in the Cook County Department of Corrections but was released in August 2016.

Contributing: Mitch Dudek