Sara Olson Trial Rescheduled to Begin April 30

The new judge in the Sara Jane Olson case set a trial date of April 30 after receiving reassurance Friday from one of Olson’s attorneys that he would show up for trial.

San Francisco-based lawyer Tony Serra had failed to appear for three hearings in the case of the woman accused of trying to kill two Los Angeles police officers while associated with the radical 1970s group known as the Symbionese Liberation Army. That prompted the previous judge in the case to order Serra to come to court Friday and show cause why he shouldn’t be removed from the case.

“I confirm I will be available and confirm my readiness,” Serra told Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler.

The trial is expected to last six months, although the defense says it could take considerably less time if Fidler reconsiders a decision by the previous judge to allow all violent acts of the SLA--including those committed before Olson is believed to have joined--to be used as evidence in the trial. Serra said Friday that the defense will file a reconsideration motion.

The SLA was responsible for crimes including the kidnapping of Patty Hearst and the killing of an Oakland school superintendent. It is also accused of two bank robberies, including one in Carmichael, Calif., that remains unsolved.

Superior Court Judge James Ideman, who presided over the case until last month, had ruled that the history of the revolutionary group was relevant for the trial.

Olson, previously known as Kathleen Soliah, is accused of placing bombs under two LAPD patrol cars in 1975. The bombs did not detonate and no one was hurt. She was arrested in June of 1999 in St. Paul, Minn., where she had been living under her assumed name for more than two decades.

At Friday’s hearing, Deputy Dist. Attys. Eleanor Hunter and Michael Latin asked Fidler to order Serra to present his entire trial calendar to the court.

Latin complained that, when Serra agreed to the last trial date, Jan. 8, he had two other jury trials scheduled to begin at the same time.

But Serra said the reason the trial was delayed was that the prosecution had failed to turn over discovery information until the last minute.

“I would have been there Jan. 8,” he said. “They were delinquent in providing discovery and in many cases had not provided it at all.”