Outcome a Bitter One for Olson’s Supporters

They held fund-raisers, wrote letters, delivered speeches, put their own mortgages or pensions on the line. They passionately believed in Sara Jane Olson, the engaging Minnesota activist and mother whom few had known in the early 1970s when she was the radical firebrand Kathleen Soliah.

On Wednesday, Olson’s supporters faced a hard truth. Either the woman they had rallied around was guilty of the crimes alleged by the government--planting pipe bombs beneath police cars--or she had succumbed to a national climate of fear and conservatism. Neither was the ending they had sought.

“Everyone is sad, because she does not deserve to go to jail,” said Mary Ellen Kaluza, a longtime friend of Olson’s from Minneapolis. “She would have never copped to this deal if she had an option.”

That was the prevailing view expressed by Olson’s supporters, who believed that the woman accused of engaging in leftist terrorism as a suspected member of the Symbionese Liberation Army was herself a victim of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks against the United States.

“Sara had no choice but to plead guilty to something she did not do because she had no chance of getting an impartial jury after Sept. 11,” said Hadassa Gilbert, a retired Los Angeles attorney and member of Olson’s defense committee.

Gilbert said she wasn’t surprised by the plea; others were. And some felt stung by Olson’s decision.

Kathy Cima, a longtime friend and lawyer who helped raise the $1-million bail for Olson, said she couldn’t figure out why Olson entered a guilty plea.

“If this was going to be the outcome, I think she should have done this two years ago,” said Cima from her home in the Twin Cities. Olson would have had a better chance in a trial two years ago, Cima said, partly because the prosecution had less evidence at the time.

And if Olson had decided to plead guilty two years ago, monetary and emotional investments from friends and family could have been spared.

“There was a lot of time and a lot of money that has been invested. . . . Admittedly, it was not going to be a slam dunk to win but you wonder why she chose not to keep fighting,” Cima said.

Olson’s case has aroused passions on both sides. Many Americans believed that justice was being done after decades of being foiled by an underground terrorist; others believed in Olson’s innocence or felt that she had paid her debt to society by living an exemplary life--that she was, in deed as in word, no longer Kathleen Soliah.

Mike Bortin, a longtime activist who is married to Olson’s sister, Josephine, said he thinks she made the right decision. “As a brother-in-law, and as a friend of hers, I’m always sad if someone’s going to go to jail. On the other hand, . . . I’m happy it has been resolved.”

Among those who never had an ounce of sympathy for Olson was John Opsahl, whose mother, Myrna, was killed in a 1975 Carmichael bank robbery in which Olson was a suspect.

“Kathleen Soliah has been hiding from the truth for 25 years, and her plea is another attempt to keep hiding from the whole truth,” he said. “There’s no solace for me in this case. But it’s a step in the right direction.”