CHICAGO — The “serial stowaway” accused of sneaking onto a jet and flying to London without a ticket is unfit to stand trial, a Cook County judge ruled Thursday after examining evaluations from two doctors.
Marilyn Hartman, 66, will be transferred from Cook County Jail to a state mental health facility in hopes that with treatment she will be able to stand trial within a year.
In recent weeks, experts found that Hartman exhibits signs of delusions and believes she is being persecuted, Judge Maura Slattery Boyle said from the bench before ordering Hartman into the custody of the state Department of Human Services.
The two doctors who conducted court-ordered mental health examinations determined Hartman has various psychological issues and is not fit to stand trial, attorneys revealed as they read portions of the experts’ findings during Thursday’s hearing.
“(Dr. Christofer Cooper) stated that although she presented in a relatively stable mental state … her psychological stability is intermittent and appears to fluctuate from day to day,” Assistant State’s Attorney Kimellen Chamberlain said, referring to Cooper’s determination after evaluating Hartman.
Cooper further described Hartman as “manifesting a psychotic thought process” and said despite her evident intelligence she would not be able to adequately assist her defense attorney in court proceedings, Chamberlain said in court.
Chamberlain also revealed that while undergoing evaluation at the Cook County Jail’s medical facility, doctors observed her turning doorknobs and trying to get out.
Dr. Mathew Markos found that Hartman shows signs of a “major psychotic illness,” described Hartman’s stowaway attempts as “a pattern of pervasive and maladaptive behaviors,” driven by stress and reinforced by “misinterpretations of the world around her,” Hartman’s attorney Parle Roe-Taylor said in court.
Hartman seeks out media attention for her actions, and “the attention she gets from the behavior only seems to perpetuate it,” Roe-Taylor read from Markos’ findings.
The judge seemed particularly troubled that Markos described Hartman’s demeanor as varying widely on the different dates he evaluated her.
“In your assessment, would you say that your presentation in each of those interviews was the same?” Slattery Boyle asked Hartman from the bench.
“Yes,” Hartman responded quietly.
That “lack of ability to recognize her disposition and how she can interact with people” raises concerns about Hartman’s ability to effectively assist her attorney, Slattery Boyle said shortly afterward in ordering Hartman to an inpatient treatment program.
Roe-Taylor had urged the judge to consider ordering outpatient treatment, saying that removing Hartman from the community would be unnecessary — a request Slattery-Boyle denied.
Roe-Taylor told reporters she was disappointed in the judge’s decision, saying Hartman had shown “real progress” since her last Chicago arrest in 2016.
“She had an apartment, she was beginning to start an independent life, she was no longer dealing with issues of homelessness,” she said. “This is a step toward treatment, but it’s not ideal for her situation.”
Hartman faces felony charges including burglary after a January incident in which she allegedly got past security, boarded a jet and flew to London’s Heathrow Airport without a ticket.
After being returned to Chicago, charged and released on bond, Hartman was arrested again — this time after she was spotted at O’Hare in violation of a judge’s order barring her from the airport.
A judge in January ordered testing to evaluate Hartman’s sanity and her fitness for trial.
Hartman has a long history of trying to sneak onto planes. Roe-Taylor said the doctors who examined her this year are the same experts who declared her fit to stand trial in 2015, when she faced misdemeanor trespassing charges.
“It was their conclusion that she is different this time as opposed to when they saw her before,” Roe-Taylor told reporters after the hearing.
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©2018 Chicago Tribune
Visit the Chicago Tribune at www.chicagotribune.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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