January Trial Date Set for Ex-Radical

Sara Jane Olson, whose lifestyle went from radical to respectable during two decades as a fugitive, agreed Monday to a January trial date on charges she plotted to kill police officers and planted pipe bombs under squad cars during the 1970s.

Olson, a St. Paul, Minn., physician’s wife, was known as Kathleen Ann Soliah when a Los Angeles grand jury indicted her on murder-conspiracy and explosives charges in 1976. She recently changed her name, becoming officially known by the alias she used to build a comfortable life as a Midwestern wife and mother active in her church and community.

The 52-year-old Olson attended the brief proceeding in Los Angeles Superior Court with her parents, who live in Palmdale.

She smiled at Superior Court Judge James M. Ideman and answered, “I do,” when asked if she agreed to give up her right to a trial within 60 days.

Attorneys said there are many issues to resolve before the trial can begin. The defense indicated it may need the judge to settle disputes over what evidence the prosecution must turn over before the trial.

Attorneys Stuart Hanlon and Susan Jordan also signaled that they plan to challenge evidence resulting from police and FBI searches of a San Francisco apartment Olson is believed to have shared with Bill and Emily Harris, leaders of the Symbionese Liberation Army. The SLA was notorious for kidnapping newspaper heiress Patty Hearst, who later joined the group.

The physical evidence, seized from a closet, according to a grand jury transcript, includes bomb-making materials, fingerprints and other items police say links Olson to two nail-packed pipe bombs found near or under squad cars on Aug. 20 and 21, 1975. The indictment charges that the bomb plot was intended to avenge the deaths of six SLA members in an earlier shootout with Los Angeles police.

Neither device exploded. One pipe bomb was discovered after it fell off a squad car in the parking lot of a Hollywood pancake house. The other was found a few hours later during a citywide bomb check of police vehicles.

The Harrises have not been charged in the alleged bomb plot, and their role in the case, if any, is uncertain. Both were freed from state prison in 1983, after serving less than eight years for their roles in the Hearst kidnapping and a shootout at a South Los Angeles sporting goods store.

Although he has mentioned Hearst as a possible witness, Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael Latin would not say in court whether he plans to call the Harrises as witnesses. However, he has expressed concerns that defense attorneys Hanlon and Jordan might have a conflict of interest because they have represented the Harrises in the past.

The FBI arrested Olson a few blocks from her home in June, ending more than two decades on the run. She was jailed briefly, then freed when a fund-raising drive by her friends and fellow church congregants raised the $1-million bail.