Middletown Woman’s Insanity Plea Accepted In Mar-A-Lago Breach

MIDDLETOWN, CT — A Middletown woman accused of driving through two checkpoints near former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida in 2020 has been found not guilty by reason of insanity, according to the Palm Beach Post.

The Palm Beach Post reports a judge accepted Hannah Roemhild's not guilty plea at a hearing via Zoom on Tuesday morning.

Lawyers for Roemhild, a 32-year-old opera singer, said she has long dealt with mental health issues and had not taken her medication at the time of the incident, according to the Palm Beach Post.

Roemhild had been charged with two counts of aggravated assault on an officer, fleeing/eluding police and resisting arrest without violence.

The situation began unfolding on Jan. 31, 2020, when a Florida Highway Patrol trooper responded to a woman "acting irrationally" and doing some kind of dance on top of a car in a hotel parking lot, according to Palm Beach County Sherriff Ric Bradshaw.

The trooper found Roemhild in a vehicle and tried to get her attention. Roemhild ignored the trooper and appeared to be driving away, according to Bradshaw.

At that point, the trooper smashed the window to try and grab the wheel, but it didn't work and Roemhild drove toward Mar-a-Lago, Bradshaw said.

Authorities said Roemhild was driving on the wrong side of the road at 70 mph as she was approaching Mar-a-Lago. Concerned that the driver could be using the vehicle as a weapon, authorities fired several shots at the vehicle in an attempt to stop it, officials previously said. No one was injured during the shooting.

Roemhild continued driving and police ended the chase for safety concerns. She was later found at a nearby hotel and taken into custody. She was tackled outside of a local motel where she appeared to be trying to make her way to a room, according to authorities.

Trump was not at the resort at the time of the incident, but was scheduled to arrive later in the day.

Bradshaw said at the time that Trump did not appear to be a target, and Roemhild ending up near Mar-a-Lago most likely was just a coincidence.

"This is not a terrorist thing," Bradshaw said at the time. “This is somebody that obviously was impaired somehow and was driving very recklessly, and endangered not only the public, but the law enforcement officers that were there."

Bradshaw said Roemhild likely had "no intention of going to Mar-a-Lago" but she was driving on a road that leads nowhere else but Mar-a-Lago.

"I'm not so sure she knew where she was going," he said.

Read more from Tuesday’s hearing at the Palm Beach Post here.