Olson Pre-Trial Can Begin, Court Rules

Pretrial motions in the case of alleged Symbionese Liberation Army member Sara Jane Olson can begin immediately, a state appeals court ruled.

Last week, the 2nd District Court of Appeal delayed Olson’s conspiracy trial until September. In a decision issued Tuesday, however, the panel clarified the terms of the four-month delay, saying pretrial hearings can be held, and judicial rulings issued, on motions concerning the admissibility of evidence at trial.

Olson, 54, is charged with conspiring to kill two Los Angeles police officers in 1975 while a member of the SLA, a radical 1970s revolutionary group. Olson, formerly Kathleen Soliah, was arrested in June 1999 after more than two decades as a fugitive.