Prosecution Straying From Original Case, Olson’s Lawyers Say

It started in 1976 as a grand jury indictment for conspiracy to blow up police cars. Now, 23 years later, Los Angeles prosecutors seem intent on trying a former Symbionese Liberation Army soldier for allegedly plotting to violently overthrow the American government.

In papers filed in Los Angeles Superior Court late Tuesday, attorneys for defendant Sara Jane Olson say these are completely different crimes. Based on that argument, they are trying to persuade a judge to throw out the 1976 indictment accusing Olson, a 52-year-old Minnesota housewife, of scheming with other SLA members to plant nail-packed pipe bombs under LAPD squad cars in August 1975.

Legal analysts say that even if the defense fails in its bid for dismissal, the attempt will compel Superior Court Judge James M. Ideman to consider how deeply the SLA’s past should be dredged.

As they have previously, defense attorneys Susan Jordan and Stuart Hanlon charge that prosecutors lack convincing evidence that Olson participated in the crime with which she is actually charged--the police car bombing plot.

Instead, the defense asserts, prosecutors Eleanor Hunter and Michael Latin are attempting to bolster a weak case by smearing Olson with evidence of a dozen other SLA crimes. The grand jury that indicted Olson had heard nothing of those other crimes 24 years ago, transcripts show.

Although the 1976 indictment does not accuse Olson of scheming to start a revolution, the prosecutors’ 1999 trial brief does.

“Needless to say, this is not the case the grand jury considered,” Jordan says in court papers challenging the indictment as “prejudicially vague and uncertain.”

The prosecutors’ preliminary brief, which gives a general outline of the case against Olson, was submitted last month. It alleges, among other things, that Olson engaged in a conspiracy to “lead the country into a full-scale revolutionary war.”

The defense says the brief now seems to accuse Olson of “nothing less than treason.” The court papers assert that “while that may be the case the People prefer to try in 1999, it is not the case the grand jury heard in 1976.”

The defense says that if the prosecution indeed intends to prove a conspiracy to overthrow the government, that case “first should be presented to a grand jury.”

Prosecutors had no comment. They said they would do their talking in their own legal filings.

Veteran criminal defense attorney Harland W. Braun said Wednesday that the defense argument--that Olson is being tried for a crime other than the one she was charged with--”has a lot of merit.”

Even if the judge denies the motion to dismiss the indictment, Braun added, “the defense has raised a valid issue which may limit the scope” of evidence of other SLA crimes allowed.

“This precipitates the issue: How does the judge define the crime?” Braun said. “This particular motion may go a long way to define what is relevant evidence. The bigger the conspiracy, the more evidence that becomes relevant.”

Braun pointed out that the defense also could benefit if the prosecution is granted a broad brush.

“The prosecution is trying to dredge up the history of the SLA. What about the history of the LAPD?” he said.

Olson was arrested in June in Minnesota. During 23 years on the run, she built a comfortable life as a doctor’s wife, mother and community activist. She is free on $1 million bail raised by friends and supporters.

Ideman has indicated in earlier remarks in court that he might allow prosecutors to delve into some of the SLA’s history.

SLA crimes that prosecutors seek to establish during a trial, scheduled to begin in January, include violent acts committed before Olson was affiliated with the radical group.

Among them are the 1973 murder of Oakland schools chief Marcus Foster, a pair of San Francisco bank robberies and the 1974 kidnapping of newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst, who ultimately joined the SLA and participated in several bank robberies. Hearst is expected to be called as a reluctant witness for the prosecution.

SLA crimes that occurred after Olson joined the group include a Sacramento-area bank robbery during which a female customer was shot to death, a jailbreak scheme, the attempted bombings of two San Francisco police stations and the bombings of three other police cars in Northern California.