Testimony of Dying Man to Be Sought in SLA Case

Defense attorneys want to preserve the testimony of dying radical writer and sports guru Jack Scott, who says he can contradict key details of kidnapped newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst’s story about their client’s role in the Symbionese Liberation Army’s 1970s crime rampage.

On Friday, attorneys for former radical-turned-housewife Sara Jane Olson will ask Superior Court Judge James Ideman to order that Scott’s testimony be taken in Eugene, Ore., because he is too sick to travel to California.

Scott, 57, “suffers from cancer of the throat and his life expectancy is extremely limited,” defense attorney Susan B. Jordan said in court papers filed Wednesday and posted on the Internet. “He will not survive until the trial.”

Scott was “a direct witness to certain words, actions and behavior of one of the chief prosecution witnesses, Patty Hearst, at various times during and surrounding her alleged abduction by, and collaboration with, the SLA,” the defense motion contends. The court papers describe Scott’s testimony as “extremely material” to the defense.

Scott took Hearst, SLA victim turned convert, underground during the summer of 1974, along with SLA leaders William and Emily Harris. At the time, they were the targets of the largest search in California history. He said in a recent interview with The Times that he agreed to hide the three if they put down their arms. He took them to his parents’ home in Las Vegas, hid them for several months at a Pennsylvania farmhouse, and then in the Catskills in upstate New York.

Scott had hoped to write a book about the radical group, but he never did. For years, according to court papers, Scott kept his secrets to himself. But, the documents state, he told the FBI in October that his illness convinced him to come forward:

“He has not revealed this information before because he was a healthy person with a professional career who saw himself living a long life and did not want to get ‘caught up’ in everything again.”

Scott was investigated by the FBI in connection with the Hearst case but was never charged with any crime.

The court papers quote heavily from Scott’s recent statements to the FBI and investigators for Olson’s defense. He talked with the FBI on Oct. 6, and with defense investigators on Oct. 25.

Scott has made some stunning allegations regarding Hearst and the story she has told in court, to federal agents, and in her 1982 book, “Every Secret Thing.” Among his allegations, according to court papers:

* Hearst told him she helped stage her own kidnapping to get out of her engagement to Berkeley philosophy student Steven Weed, who made her feel “like a slave.”

* When Scott offered to let Hearst go free, she “became angry and told him to take her where they were supposed to, or they would all be dead.”

* Hearst was the “most zealous” member of the SLA. She stayed with the group because she was treated well.

* During her travels with Scott, Hearst kept “a daily hit list” that included the names of activist actress Jane Fonda and San Francisco FBI chief Charles Bates.

* She had been in love with Willie Wolfe, the SLA member she later accused of raping her. Wolfe and five other SLA members died in a May 1974 standoff with Los Angeles police.

Neither Hearst nor her lawyer could be reached late Wednesday.

Olson, formerly known as Kathleen Ann Soliah, is accused of conspiring to murder police officers by planting pipe bombs under two squad cars in August 1975. The plot allegedly was to avenge the deaths of the SLA members. But the bombs did not explode, and no one was hurt.

Prosecutors have identified Hearst as their star witness, although she had expressed reluctance to testify. A recent ruling by Judge Ideman expanded the case to include a history of the SLA’s criminal acts.

Olson, who was indicted in 1976, built a life as a doctor’s wife, mother of three, and church and community activist during her 23 years as a fugitive. She was arrested in June, a few blocks from her home in a comfortable neighborhood in St. Paul, Minn.

Hearst was kidnapped by the SLA in 1974. She went to prison for an SLA bank robbery and for shooting up a Los Angeles sporting goods store. Her sentence was commuted by President Carter.