Surprise transfer of judge will delay SLA fugitive trial

LOS ANGELES - The often-delayed case of former Symbionese Liberation Army fugitive Sara Jane Olson took another unexpected turn Monday with announcement that the trial judge has been transferred and a three-month delay will be needed.

The disclosure that Superior Court Judge James Ideman will be moving on and not taking the attempted-murder case with him appeared to take participants by surprise.

Prosecutors and the defendant looked stunned when Superior Court Judge Cecil Mills, presiding over the case in the interim, made the announcement.

''Judge Ideman has been transferred. The case will not be transferred with him,'' Mills said without any explanation of why the move was necessary.

A call requesting comment from the Superior Court was not immediately returned.

Mills said it was likely that the new judge will be the current presiding criminal courts judge, Larry Paul Fidler, but that assignment was put on hold until next week.

Mills said that Fidler is due to spend the first three months of the year sitting temporarily on an appeals court and would not be available to try the case until April. The trial had most recently been scheduled to begin Jan. 8.

Prosecutors asked for time to oppose a further continuance of a trial which is now 25 years overdue and has been repeatedly delayed since Olson's arrest in June 1999.

Olson is charged with attempting to murder police officers in 1975 by placing bombs under squad cars in retaliation for a shootout that killed six SLA members on May 17, 1974. The bombs did not explode. Olson, then known as Kathleen Soliah, was indicted on Feb. 26, 1976. She was living as a doctor's wife in Minnesota at the time of her arrest.

Further complications arose at Monday's hearing when the San Francisco lawyer assigned to be Olson's attorney failed to show up. J. Tony Serra has now missed four hearings in the case and was on notice to appear Monday. Co-counsel Shawn Chapman said Serra is in the midst of a trial in San Francisco.

Deputy District Attorney Michael Latin told the judge Serra's absence was worrisome.

''We have never seen or heard from Mr. Serra. He has intentionally failed to appear for the last several court appearances. His disappearance is troubling,'' Latin said.

Latin said he does believe defense assertions that the team is not ready to start trial.

''But failure to prepare does not equate to good cause,'' the prosecutor said.

The judge did not immediately rule on a request by Chapman to have up to three additional defense attorneys appointed in the case at public expense to assist in preparing voluminous evidence.

Mills said he would have to see proof that Olson, who attended the hearing, is indigent before making such appointments

Olson's husband is an emergency room doctor in St. Paul, Minn. But the couple has said they have exhausted all their resources on litigation since her arrest.

Mills set a hearing for Dec. 18 to make a final ruling on the continuance, giving the prosecution time to file motions opposing it. He also asked for additional material on Olson's financial situation.

The judge said that motions filed by the news media to overturn Ideman's orders to have an anonymous jury will be transferred to the new judge for decision.

The trial has followed a rocky course since Olson's original attorney bowed out because of personal problems and his replacement left due to illness. That was when Serra and Chapman stepped in.