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<a href="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<br>
</a><i>From the Los Angeles Times<br><br>
</i></font><h1><b>Former SLA member leaves
prison</b></h1><font size=3>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<br>
By Joel Rubin<br>
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer<br><br>
March 21, 2008<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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. <br><br>
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.<br><br>
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."<br><br>
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."<br><br>
Los Angeles police see Soliah in far harsher light.<br><br>
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."<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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. <br><br>
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. <br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
<a href="mailto:joel.rubin@latimes.com">joel.rubin@latimes.com</a><br><br>
<br>
</font><h1><b>Sara Jane Olson released from
prison</b></h1><font size=3><a href="mailto:srubenstein@sfchronicle.com">
Steve Rubenstein, Chronicle Staff Writer</a><br><br>
Friday, March 21, 2008<br>
<a href="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">
<img src="http://imgs.sfgate.com/c/pictures/2002/01/21_t/mn_sla_t.gif" width=64 height=64 alt="Kathleen Soliah in 1974. Associated Press file photo">
</a>
<a href="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">
<img src="http://imgs.sfgate.com/c/pictures/2004/07/14_t/mn_saraolson-nickut_ap_t.gif" width=64 height=64 alt="Sara Jane Olson in 2001. Associated Press photo by Nick Ut">
</a> <br><br>
<b>(03-20) 23:50 PDT San Francisco</b> -- 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.<br><br>
Olson, 61, formerly known as Kathleen Soliah, walked out of the Central
Women's Facility in Chowchilla, prisons spokesman Bill Sessa
said.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
Olson was also serving time for murder.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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."<br><br>
<i>Chronicle news services contributed to this report. E-mail Steve
Rubenstein at
<a href="mailto:srubenstein@sfchronicle.com">
srubenstein@sfchronicle.com</a>.</i> <br><br>
<a href="http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/03/21/MN29VO8Q3.DTL" eudora="autourl">
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/03/21/MN29VO8Q3.DTL<br>
<br>
</a>This article appeared on page <b>A - 4</b> of the San Francisco
Chronicle<br><br>
<br><br>
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