A California woman known as a “serial stowaway” for her penchant for sneaking aboard airplanes pleaded guilty to sneaking aboard a plane in Chicago last year and flying to London without a ticket.
Marilyn Hartman was sentenced to 18 months of probation on March 19.
She told the judge she was sorry for what she had done. “I do apologize for the airport and … causing problems for them,” she said, reported the Chicago Tribune.
The plea agreement had Hartman’s ankle monitors removed but mandated that she continue living at A Safe Haven, a Chicago residential facility, and abide by its rules. Since she started living there in July she has had an increasing amount of freedom, and is currently allowed to leave the facility with an escort, according to her attorney.
Serial stowaway Marilyn Hartman Pleads guilty for latest illicit trip, gets 18 months probation— and praise from judge for progress in mental health treatment https://t.co/JQUfIEGELg
— Andy Grimm (@agrimm34) March 19, 2019
“I think we all hope that this has worked, and she’s in a good place, that she is doing really well with all the things that are required of her,” the attorney, Parle Roe-Taylor, told reporters after the hearing. “I have no reason to think that she will return (to the airport), but I also don’t have a crystal ball. I have a lot of hope that that will never happen again.”
In the past five years, Hartman has been accused of similar incidents in multiple states and prosecutors in a previous court filing said she was a “serial stowaway.”
Cook County Judge Peggy Chiampas said that Hartman is barred from O’Hare and Midway Airport without a ticket but praised the woman for the work she’s done since early 2018, including time spent at a state mental health facility.
“A Safe Haven has been your safe haven, and I am really proud of the progress you have made,” the judge told her, reported the Chicago Sun-Times.
With the help of employees at A Safe Haven, she hopes to find permanent housing soon, in Chicago or in a nearby suburb.
The Woman Who Smuggled Herself: @EskSF on the sad, strange life of the Serial Stowaway. http://t.co/CokwbIvnXM pic.twitter.com/j3z9CqJV01
— Jon Steinberg (@jonsteinberg31) June 12, 2015
Background
Hartman told the San Francisco Chronicle in 2015 that she was often assisted by people working at airports in her quest to get on planes without tickets.
“I have been allowed on the plane by people working at the airport,” she said.
She said she was motivated to board planes because of what she described as “whistleblower trauma syndrome,” stemming from when she called out a lawyer who rigged cases with a retired FBI agent, leading to her own “case” being rigged.
“The Woman Who Smuggled Herself” On serial stowaway Marilyn Hartman: http://t.co/nu24bBnGnF (@EskSF, @sanfranmag) pic.twitter.com/QlkAJrrHIh
— Longform (@longform) July 7, 2015
The syndrome induces a “fight or flight” reaction, or as Hartman said, “I feel the need to get on a plane to go away.”
Three men who Hartman identified as her brothers declined to comment much on their relationship with her. One said, “She’s somebody who changed her family name, and she’s off on her own out there.”
He added that she hasn’t been a part of his life since the 1970s. “She’s been out of so many people’s lives for just decades,” he said. “I would guess there hasn’t been any contact for something like 20 years. If not more. She’s kind of like a ghost.”
