Woman in Mar-a-Lago chase won’t appear in court

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A Connecticut opera singer charged with using an SUV to blast through barricades outside of President Donald Trump’s Florida estate, drawing law enforcement gunfire, refused to appear in court Saturday, delaying her initial appearance.

Palm Beach County Judge Ted Booras said Hannah Roemhild’s first hearing would be held Monday if she could be brought from the jail to the court without endangering herself or deputies, local media reported.

Roemhild, 30, is charged with two state counts of aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer after Friday’s wild chase through Palm Beach and past the president’s Mar-a-Lago club. She is being held at the Palm Beach County jail without bond. Officials have said Roemhild was “obviously impaired” and they do not believe she targeted the president or Mar-a-Lago. He was not present.

Friday’s events began just before noon when a Florida Highway Patrol trooper working an off-duty security shift at the Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach approached Roemhild as she danced on the roof of her rented Jeep SUV in the high-end resort’s parking lot. She jumped inside and refused to acknowledge him.

She then drove away. The trooper smashed the window and tried to grab the steering wheel, but she sped away, leading him on a chase south down Ocean Drive toward Mar-a-Lago, 3 miles away.

Authorities there say she swerved through two checkpoints, endangering the lives of Secret Service agents and Palm Beach County deputies. They opened fire, breaking out her back window. At this point, the trooper ended his pursuit, fearing lives would be endangered.

Roemhild picked up a female relative before automatic license plate readers tracked her to a motel near Palm Beach International Airport.