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Prosecutors argue Olson endangered police officers

By ROBERT JABLON Associated Press Writer By ROBERT
Wednesday November 08, 2000

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Sara Jane Olson, who is charged with trying to bomb police cars 25 years ago, endangered the lives of police officers last month by placing their addresses and home telephone numbers on the Internet, prosecutors charge. 

Olson, who is free on bail, engaged in “overtly malicious tactics designed to harass, intimidate and endanger the safety of the very victims she is charged with having conspired to murder,” according to a motion filed Monday in Superior Court. 

It asks a judge to find Olson and her lawyers in contempt of court and double her $1 million bail. A hearing is scheduled Nov. 17. 

Olson’s attorneys, Shawn Chapman and J. Tony Serra, did not immediately return calls for comment on Tuesday. 

The personal information, on LAPD Officer John Hall and former Officer James Bryan, was contained in an October defense motion — a public document — although there was “no legitimate adversarial purpose” to do so, according to prosecutors. 

The court sealed that portion of the defense motion, but the unedited version appeared on Olson’s Minnesota-based fund-raising Web site on Oct. 27. Olson refused to remove the information on Hall for three days despite a court order, the motion contends. 

Hall and Bryan are both listed as prosecution witnesses. It was unclear if either had received any threats as a result of the Internet posting, prosecutor Michael Latin said Tuesday. 

Prosecutors also contend that Olson’s lawyers willfully gave her the document, violating a state law that bars attorneys from disclosing the phone numbers or addresses of victims or witnesses to anyone, even clients, without court approval. 

“We did not distribute any copies of the motion. ... It leaves only one source,” prosecutor Eleanor Hunter said. 

Hall will be in court next week “to address how and why this posed such a threat to his safety and security and that of his family,” Latin said. “He feels violated that the attorneys would violate that confidence.’ 

Olson, formerly known as Kathleen Soliah, is accused of attempting to murder Los Angeles police officers by placing pipe bombs under two squad cars in 1975, allegedly to avenge the deaths of Symbionese Liberation Army members killed in a fiery police shootout in Los Angeles. The bombs failed to explode. 

Olson was indicted in 1976 and remained a fugitive until her arrest last year in Minnesota, where she had lived quietly as a wife and mother. She is scheduled to face trial in January. 

Bryan also has a civil lawsuit pending against Olson. 

On the Net: 

www.saraolsondefense.com