Chicago Woman Arrested 396 Times In 35 Years Finally Accepts Plea Deal

A Chicago woman who has been arrested 396 times in 35 years took a plea deal Monday where she agreed to get mental health and substance abuse treatment.

Shermain Miles, 51, has dozens of convictions for felonies and misdemeanors, and has been at Logan Correctional Center in Lincoln, Ill., since December after she violated her parole.

Yesterday, she pleaded guilty to charges that she attacked a city council member. She also admitted to trespassing and drinking in public in two separate cases. The judge offered Miles a plea deal in which she would be sentenced to time served for her three guilty pleas in exchange for a mental health evaluation and treatment, as well as treatment for alcohol abuse.

All of us are reaching out to you and offering you, maybe for the first time in your life, a hand, OK?" Judge Peggy Chiampas told Miles. "But you've got to reach out and grab all of our hands as well."

Miles, who has been known to shriek during her past court appearances, politely thanked Chiampas. Her rap sheet includes 65 arrests for disorderly conduct and 59 for crimes related to prostitution and robbery, among other things.

She has used at least 83 different aliases and is well known among merchants and residents in several neighborhoods on Chicago's North Side. One florist called police on her 25 times last summer.

But after finding God in prison, she claims that she is a changed woman. "I don't want to be a big monster," she said on Monday in court.