July 14, 1999
Web posted at: 12:29 p.m. EDT (1629 GMT)

LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- Prosecutors say they will ask for a seven-figure bail for 1970s revolutionary-turned-Minnesota housewife Kathleen Ann Soliah when the former fugitive appears for a bond hearing Wednesday.

Authorities said Soliah -- a fugitive for more than 23 years -- is a former member of the Symbionese Liberation Army, the radical movement best known for kidnapping heiress Patty Hearst. She arrived in Los Angeles late Tuesday after extradition from Minnesota, where she lived as a St. Paul housewife and mother of two, named Sara Jane Olson.

She faces charges of plotting to kill Los Angeles police officers by placing explosives under their patrol cars. The bombs did not detonate and no one was injured. She could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted.

Prosecutors say Soliah should face a minimum bail of $3 million, and they would prefer that she not be granted bail at all. She waived extradition last week, admitting she is who prosecutors say she is.

Los Angeles County district attorney's spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons said the 52-year-old Soliah is a flight risk because she could face additional charges in Sacramento stemming from a bank robbery-murder.

Her extradition has prompted investigators to reopen their files on a bank robbery in Carmichael, California, linked to the SLA. The April 1975 holdup left a 42-year-old bank customer dead.

But her lawyers say the state has a weak case against her. The sole prosecution witness linking Soliah to the bombings died five years ago, and her attorneys say there is no physical evidence linking their client to the explosives.

Her defense will ask the judge to set bail at $150,000 or less because she has lived the life of a community pillar in Minnesota.

"When one considers her lack of danger, her ties to her present community, as well as the circumstantial and weak case that presently exists against Ms. Olson, there is simply no valid argument on which one could deny bail or set bail in an excessive amount," court documents state.

The attorneys want to present character witnesses during the hearing in an attempt to show her strong roots in the community over the last 20 years.

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