Olson Seeks to Raise Legal Defense Funds

Calling her upcoming bomb conspiracy trial “a witch hunt,” former Symbionese Liberation Army fugitive Sara Jane Olson on Tuesday declared herself broke and fearful.

Olson also denied reports that anyone had negotiated any plea bargains on her behalf.

Reading from a prepared statement at a Minneapolis press conference, Olson appealed for donations, kicking off a fund-raising effort by her defense team and supporters.

Olson said legal expenses of $190,000 have depleted her family’s savings. Her husband, an emergency room physician, earns $160,000 a year, the couple stated in court documents.

“My husband and I cannot afford this case. It is way beyond our personal wealth,” she said Tuesday. “Frankly, I’m a little nervous. My pending trial is a witch hunt in the guise of a conspiracy case.”

Olson’s attorneys recently filed motions in Los Angeles Superior Court seeking a partial refund of her $1-million bail, raised by friends. As an alternative, the defense seeks court funding for up to $500,000 to hire expert witnesses.

“I’m an ordinary American woman,” Olson said. “And that’s why I’m rather surprised to find myself the target of a determined conspiracy prosecution by the Los Angeles district attorney’s office.”

“I am being tried, not for what I’m accused of, but for crimes of the SLA, for events with which I haven’t even been affiliated with, including the kidnapping of Patricia Hearst,” Olson said.

A prosecution spokeswoman declined comment.

Olson is accused of plotting with other SLA members to kill police officers by planting nail-packed pipe bombs under two squad cars in August 1975. Neither device exploded and no one was hurt.