Judge Sets Trial Date for Olson’s Attorneys

The two defense attorneys in the conspiracy trial of alleged Symbionese Liberation Army member Sara Jane Olson are scheduled to go on trial next month on charges they violated state law by allegedly disclosing the addresses of two police officer witnesses.

Superior Court Judge William Ryan on Monday set a July 30 trial for Tony Serra and Shawn Chapman, although Chapman is seeking to have the charges against her dismissed because she claims she did not draft or file the document.

The misdemeanor charges are likely to mean a further delay in the long-postponed Olson trial, which has been continued five times and now is scheduled to begin in September.

Deputy City Atty. Edward Gauthier told the judge Monday that his office is considering dropping charges against Chapman, but wants to meet with her attorney first.

Chapman’s attorney, Dean Masserman, said Gauthier wants assurances from Chapman that she will not interfere with Serra’s prosecution by changing her account and trying to take the blame for the document after her charges are dropped.

Ryan postponed Chapman’s arraignment until Friday. He urged Gauthier to decide before then and warned everyone involved that he would not try the cases against the attorneys piecemeal. Serra pleaded not guilty to the charges two weeks ago.

“I want to make it very clear that these cases are going to be tried together, not separately,” Ryan said.

The California Bar Assn. also is investigating complaints against Chapman and Serra.

Olson, who was arrested in June 1999 in St. Paul, Minn., after more than two decades in hiding, is charged with conspiring in 1975 to kill the two Los Angeles police officers, John Hall and James Bryan, by placing bombs under two squad cars. The bombs did not detonate.

The officers’ addresses and phone numbers were placed in a document that attorneys are required to file under seal because it contained identifying witness information. The document was posted on a Web site created to generate money for Olson’s defense.

Hall told the former judge in the Olson case in November that he was terrified after finding out that his address had been posted on the Internet. Hall also complained to the bar association.

Chapman claims that she was not involved in the filing or Internet posting. Serra claims that his secretary drew up the motion, signed his name to it and filed it. He said he was out of town at the time.

The attorneys’ trial date was set after Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler, who is presiding over the Olson trial, agreed earlier in the day to delay pretrial hearings in the Olson case until after the misdemeanor case and the bar investigation are resolved.

Although an appeals court has delayed the Olson trial until September, Fidler had been given the go-ahead to conduct pretrial hearings to determine what evidence would be admissible at trial.

“It appears to me that right now we’re on hold,” he said.

Fidler said he would ask the bar association to inform him about when it would complete its investigation.

Fidler, however, refused the defense attorneys’ request to either recuse them from the Olson case or order that the misdemeanor charges be dropped. Fidler also refused the defense request to recuse Deputy Dist. Attys. Eleanor Hunter and Michael Latin.

Fidler said he saw no conflict for the prosecutors, who are potential witnesses in the misdemeanor case. He agreed that the misdemeanor charges and bar investigation create some potential conflict of interest issues. But he said those conflicts would be nonexistent if the two probes are resolved before September, regardless of their outcomes.

Serra disagreed, warning Fidler that if he’s convicted he would not go forward with the Olson trial regardless of the consequences.

“If I’m convicted, I’ll never stay in this case,” Serra said, who was asked to elaborate on his conflict concerns in a sealed court filing. “You can do whatever you want to me. I would be hurting [Olson if I stayed].”