Los Angeles — With tears flowing from her family and friends, '70s radical-turned-suburban mother Sara Jane Olson was sentenced Friday to 20 years to life in prison for plotting to blow up a pair of Los Angeles police cars 27 years ago.
A few moments later, Olson pleaded innocent to murder and robbery charges in a deadly 1975 bank holdup that prosecutors also blame on members of the Symbionese Liberation Army. Bail was set at $1 million, but the move was symbolic because Olson is headed for prison.
Sara Jane Olson, sitting, reacts as her daughter, Leila Peterson, leans over to hug her at Olson's sentencing after Peterson gave a statement on her mother's behalf in a courtroom in Los Angeles. Olson was sentenced Friday to 20 years to life in prison for plotting to bomb police cars 27 years ago.
Before she was sentenced, Olson offered her first public statement of contrition, telling the judge, her family and others in the courtroom: "Forgive me for the pain I've brought you."
But she denied trying to murder police officers by planting the bombs, a plot prosecutors said was intended to avenge the deaths of six SLA members during a shootout with authorities in 1974. The bombs didn't explode.
Superior Court Judge Larry Fidler sentenced Olson to two consecutive terms of 10 years to life, but said state law will allow the Board of Prison Terms to recalculate the term after she is in prison.
"She could have it fixed as little as five years," Fidler said.
Olson, 55, was a fugitive for more than 20 years until her arrest two years ago in Minnesota. She had changed her name from Kathleen Soliah and was living the life of a community activist with a doctor husband and three daughters.
She wept as her mother, husband and a daughter joined a parade of supporters who told the judge that Olson was a good woman who had devoted her life to public service and to raising her children.
"I want to say again that my daughter was never a member of the SLA," her mother, Elsie Soliah, said. She went to her daughter at the defense table and hugged and kissed her. "It's all right. It's OK," Soliah said
Olson's 14-year-old daughter, Leila Peterson, sobbed as she spoke of her mother as "one of the best mothers anyone would ever want."
"I'll be always at your side no matter what," she told Olson, then fell into her mother's arms as sobs wracked her body.
Olson choked back tears as her husband, Gerald Peterson, said the two had been happily married for 23 years.
"To my lovely wife Sara, California is now entrusted to clothe you, to feed you, shelter you and correct you and try you," he said. "But this family of ours and our dear friends will not be diminished in our love for you and our respect for you. We will always stand by you until you come home."
When her turn to speak came, Olson addressed her family and friends.
"I still maintain I didn't participate in events in Los Angeles," she said. "I hope you'll forgive me the pain I have brought you. ... I am a person in court today who truly, while grateful for all that I had my life has had quite a lot, as you can see.
"For any mistakes that I have made, I accept responsibility for any pain I have caused. I accept responsibility and I am truly sorry."
The SLA began in the fall of 1973 when a handful of white, college-educated children of middle-class families adopted a seven-headed snake as their symbol, a black ex-convict as their leader and the phrase, "Death to the fascist insect that preys upon the life of the people" as their slogan.
The group derived its name from "symbiosis," a biological term referring to unlike organisms coexisting harmoniously for mutual benefit.
The group is best known for the 1974 kidnapping of newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst.
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