Ex-Fugitive Soliah Legally Changes Name
Former Symbionese Liberation Army fugitive Kathleen Soliah legally changed her name Monday to Sara Jane Olson, the one she used for 20 years after fleeing to Minnesota from charges of conspiracy to commit murder in Los Angeles.
Olson told a District Court referee in Ramsey County, Minn., that she wanted the change “because I’ve used the name Sara Jane Olson in my private and professional life for the past 20 years.”
She faces charges for allegedly placing two pipe bombs under police cares in 1975 as retaliation for a shootout with police in which six SLA members were killed.
Olson filed her application for a name change on Aug. 12. She also asked the court to change her birth date listed on her Minnesota driver’s license to Jan. 16, 1947, instead of April 25, 1948. The court declined, saying an order isn’t needed to make the change.
A spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office has said a name change will not affect the case against Olson, who has pleaded not guilty.
Her lawyers at first did not acknowledge that Olson and Soliah were the same person, but later said their client took a new name to shed her past.
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