Soliah appears in court Wednesday

July 14, 1999
Web posted at: 3:03 p.m. EDT (1903 GMT)

LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- Minnesota neighbors of fugitive radical Kathleen Soliah told a California judge Wednesday they trusted her to return to court if freed on bail.

Soliah, 52, pleaded not guilty to charges she planted explosives beneath the cars of Los Angeles police officers in 1975 while a member of the radical Symbionese Liberation Army. None of the bombs planted beneath the police cars exploded, and no officers were injured, but Soliah could still face a sentence of life in prison if convicted.

She fled California and remained a fugitive for 23 years, living in St. Paul, Minnesota, as Sara Jane Olson -- mother of three, community volunteer, doctor's wife.

"There's no way she would run from that," said James Johnson, who plays in a Methodist church band with Soliah's husband, Fred Peterson.

"That's her life," Johnson said. "If she ran from that, she wouldn't have anything."

Prosecutors argued that Soliah should not be allowed bail at all, or that bail should be in the $3 million range. But neighbors and friends told the court in Los Angeles that she could be trusted not to skip bail.

"I really, truly believe in my own heart -- and I have shared this with many of my neighbors -- that we really can depend on Sara," said Andrew Dawkins, a longtime friend.

Defense attorney Susan Jordan: 'It was a time of extraordinary turmoil'

Sara Olson waived extradition proceedings in Minnesota and has admitted she is the fugitive Soliah, a soldier in the SLA -- best known for its kidnapping of heiress Patty Hearst. Susan Jordan, one of Soliah's lawyers, tried to put her decision to flee in context of the social and political upheavals of the mid-1970s.

"It was a time of extraordinary turmoil," she said. "There were excesses on both sides ... the smell of tear gas was common."

Prosecutors argued that Soliah's two-decade evasion of authorities and the possibility that she could face charges in an SLA bank robbery-slaying near Sacramento in 1975 justify either a high bail or none at all.

"We have a defendant who successfully fled and changed her identity," Deputy District Attorney Michael Latin said.

But Jordan said reports that Soliah could be charged in connection with the holdup are misleading.

"He doesn't tell you that the grand jury has twice declined to indict her," she said.

Her lawyers say the state has a weak case on the explosives charges. The sole prosecution witness linking Soliah to the attempted bombing 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.

Her arrest came shortly after the airing of an episode of "America's Most Wanted" marking the 25-year anniversary of a fiery shootout between the Los Angeles Police Department and the SLA. Six SLA members died in the gun battle.

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