Attorneys for Olson Ask to Be Removed

Attorneys for alleged Symbionese Liberation Army member Sara Jane Olson filed motions Tuesday seeking to be taken off the case or to have misdemeanor charges against them dismissed, a move several legal experts said makes sense.

The attorneys, Tony Serra and Shawn Chapman, say they cannot represent Olson, accused of conspiring in 1975 to kill two Los Angeles police officers by placing bombs under two squad cars, while at the same time trying to defend themselves against misdemeanor charges.

The city attorney’s office had charged them with violating state law in November by including the addresses and phone numbers of the two officers in a public filing. The information was then posted on an Internet site created to raise money for Olson’s defense.

To protect witnesses from potential harm, state law prohibits attorneys from including such personal information in public filings.

Serra and Chapman say the charges present potential conflicts. They also claim that Deputy Dist. Attys. Eleanor Hunter and Michael Latin should be removed if the charges aren’t dismissed because the prosecutors are potential witnesses in the misdemeanor case.

Mike Qualls, a spokesman for the city attorney’s office, did not return repeated telephone calls.

A pretrial hearing on the misdemeanor charges is scheduled for Serra on Monday. Chapman is scheduled to be arraigned Monday.

After their hearings, the two attorneys are expected to appear before Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler and argue their request to be removed from the case.

Several law experts agreed that the charges against them could pose some problems. “This is not frivolous,” law professor Laurie Levenson, of Loyola Law School, said of the defense attorneys’ motions. “I think there are some plausible arguments for a conflict.”

Levenson and Erwin Chemerinsky, a professor at USC, said city officials should have waited until after the Olson trial was over to address the misdemeanor charges.

“I am baffled as to why they felt compelled to bring the charges at this point,” Levenson said. “They had to know this would throw a kink into the works.”

The legal experts said problems could include defense lawyers being less confrontational with prosecutors in the Olson case because they know those same prosecutors might testify in the misdemeanor case.

Or, the experts said, the defense lawyers might be easier on prosecution witnesses because they might also be witnesses.

“I think it is a serious conflict of interest,” Chemerinsky said.