[Ppnews] Sara Jane Olson released from prison

[Political Prisoner News]

<http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-olson21mar21,1,7135722.story>http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-olson21mar21,1,7135722.story
 From the Los Angeles Times


Former SLA member leaves prison

Kathleen Soliah, a former Palmdale resident, served about half of her 
12-year term for her role in a plot to blow up LAPD cars. She had 
been arrested in 1999 while living under an assumed name in Minn
By Joel Rubin
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

March 21, 2008

Kathleen Soliah, a former member of the radical Symbionese Liberation 
Army, was released on parole this week from a California women's 
prison after serving about six years behind bars for her role in a 
plot to kill Los Angeles police officers by blowing up their patrol cars.

The white-haired convict, who has changed her name to Sara Jane 
Olson, had been sentenced to 12 years in prison. Like most California 
inmates, Soliah earned credit against her sentence for working while 
in prison. She served on a maintenance crew that swept and cleaned 
the main yard of the Central California Women's Facility in 
Chowchilla, prison officials said.

The 61-year-old Soliah, who was released Monday, must now serve a 
three-year parole, although prison officials declined to provide the 
conditions of her release.

Reached at her family's home in Palmdale on Thursday, Soliah refused 
to comment. Her husband, Dr. Gerald Peterson, who was also at the 
house, said only that he was "relieved."

Soliah's attorney, Shawn Chapman Holley, said, "We're thrilled she's 
out and can return to her family. For someone who was not a danger or 
a threat to society, it was six years too long."

Los Angeles police see Soliah in far harsher light.

She "attempted to murder LAPD officers by bombing two police cars," 
said Tim Sands, president of the Police Protective League, which 
represents the city's 9,300 rank-and-file officers. "She needs to 
serve her full time in prison for these crimes and does not deserve 
time off for working in prison. Criminals who attempt to murder 
police officers should not be able to escape justice simply because 
they have good lawyers."

The child of a middle-class Palmdale family, Soliah joined the 
violent band of radicals best known for kidnapping newspaper heiress 
Patty Hearst in the mid-1970s. She was charged with taking part in a 
1975 plan to plant pipe bombs beneath police cars in retaliation for 
a shootout with Los Angeles police that left six SLA members dead.

The nail-packed bombs didn't detonate when the triggering device on 
one malfunctioned. Not waiting around to make her case in court 
though, she fled.

She changed her name to Sara Jane Olson, left California and married 
Peterson, an emergency room physician. The couple lived for a while 
in Zimbabwe before settling in St. Paul, Minn. Soliah lived the quiet 
life of a homemaker and mother of three daughters in a Tudor-style 
home in an upscale neighborhood near the Mississippi River and 
performed in a local theater's Shakespeare productions.

Soliah's disappearance inadvertently led authorities to Hearst, who 
had joined the SLA after being kidnapped. Los Angeles detectives who 
were tracking Soliah raided two San Francisco apartments, where 
authorities found Hearst and other SLA members.

Soliah's second life came to an abrupt end in 1999 when she was 
apprehended soon after being featured on TV's "America's Most 
Wanted." Her case was moving toward trial on Sept. 11, 2001. After 
the terrorist attacks, Soliah struck a plea deal in the bombing 
attempt, saying she feared she would not get a fair trial in such an 
atmosphere.

Prosecutors scoffed at her reasoning, pointing to reams of documents, 
fingerprints and other evidence they had amassed against her. The 
deal aborted a trial that had promised high drama -- the saga of a 
fetching high school pep-squad member turned fugitive -- and a 
revisiting of the social tumult of the 1970s.

Soliah pleaded guilty to two charges of possessing a destructive 
device with the intent to murder and also struck a deal in a separate 
case, in which she pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for 
participating in a Sacramento bank robbery where another SLA member 
killed a customer. For the murder conviction, she received a one-year 
sentence. For the botched bombings, Soliah initially was sentenced to 
five years and four months, but that term was extended to 12 years by 
a state prison board after the board designated her a serious offender.

Inmate W94197 reported for work in the prison yard shortly after 8 
each morning. She earned 24 cents an hour emptying trash cans and 
tidying up. Soliah chafed under her placement in the security group 
"Close A," among the most intensely supervised inmates, who are 
denied privileges and required to be counted seven times a day. In 
interviews and letters sent to The Times, she said other inmates 
often confronted her, with one saying she was rumored to be a member 
of Al Qaeda. Peterson visited about 10 times a year, bringing at 
least one of the couple's three daughters each time. Prison rules 
allowed one kiss and one hug at the start of each visit and a second 
at the end.

Soliah had no discipline problems while in prison, according to Terry 
Thornton, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Corrections 
and Rehabilitation. While on parole, she must remain in Los Angeles 
County, Thornton said, but has submitted a request to be allowed to 
live elsewhere -- presumably Minnesota, where her husband lives.

<mailto:joel.rubin at latimes.com>joel.rubin at latimes.com



Sara Jane Olson released from prison

<mailto:srubenstein at sfchronicle.com>Steve Rubenstein, Chronicle Staff Writer

Friday, March 21, 2008
<http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2008/03/21//cgi-bin/object/article?f=/c/a/2008/03/21/MN29VO8Q3.DTL&o=0&type=printable>
Kathleen Soliah in 1974. Associated Press file photo
  <http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2008/03/21//cgi-bin/object/article?f=/c/a/2008/03/21/MN29VO8Q3.DTL&o=1&type=printable>
Sara Jane Olson in 2001. Associated Press photo by Nick Ut


(03-20) 23:50 PDT San Francisco -- Former Symbionese Liberation Army 
member Sara Jane Olson, who hid for years by posing as an ordinary 
housewife, was released from prison Thursday after serving time for 
attempted murder and second-degree murder in two separate cases, 
authorities said.

Olson, 61, formerly known as Kathleen Soliah, walked out of the 
Central Women's Facility in Chowchilla, prisons spokesman Bill Sessa said.

For almost 24 years, Olson was one of the nation's most sought-after 
fugitives - she disappeared in 1975, the same year two Los Angeles 
police cars were bombed. She changed her name from Kathleen Soliah 
and, over the years, lived as a mild-mannered Midwestern housewife. 
She married a Minnesota physician and became a celebrated cook and 
soccer mom in the St. Paul area.

She was captured in June 1999 on charges of planting the police car 
bombs. She subsequently pleaded guilty to attempted murder charges 
for the attempted car bombings. In 2004, a Sacramento judge vacated 
the 14-year sentence for the car bombs given to Olson after ruling 
that the state Board of Prison Terms did not independently review her 
case upon sentencing her in 2002 for the bombings. After a review, 
her sentence was reduced by one year.

Olson was also serving time for murder.

In 2002, Olson had pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for her 
role in the 1975 SLA robbery of the Sacramento area bank in which 
customer Myrna Opsahl, 42, was shot and killed. She received a 
sentence of six years.

In her 2002 probation report, police said Olson emerged as the leader 
of the SLA after a 1974 fire and shootout in Los Angeles in which six 
of the nine members of the SLA died.

Back when she was Kathy Soliah, Olson was president of the Palmdale 
High School Pep Club in Los Angeles County. Her mother said in an 
interview in 1975 that her oldest daughter was "into everything - 
Girl Scouts, the Rainbows, Sunday school."

Chronicle news services contributed to this report. E-mail Steve 
Rubenstein at <mailto:srubenstein at sfchronicle.com>srubenstein at sfchronicle.com.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/03/21/MN29VO8Q3.DTL

This article appeared on page A - 4 of the San Francisco Chronicle




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