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Home | Politically Connected | State Politics

Kiffmeyer calls for probe of Olson's fugitive voting

Ex-secretary of state asks Ramsey County for a probe, but county attorney says fugitive legally changed name.

By MARK BRUNSWICK, Star Tribune

Last update: March 24, 2009 - 10:51 PM

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Former Minnesota Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer has sent a letter to the Ramsey County attorney's office, asking for an investigation into whether paroled 1970s militant and fugitive Sara Jane Olson should face charges for committing voter fraud during her days on the run in St. Paul.

But County Attorney Susan Gaertner said that Olson, 62, changed her name legally when she married in 1980 and that, as Olson, she voted legally in Ramsey County.

The former Kathleen Soliah, who was released from prison in California last week, returned to a swirling debate about whether she should be allowed to serve her parole in Minnesota rather than in California. Olson served half of a 14-year sentence after pleading guilty to participating in a deadly 1975 bank robbery in the Sacramento area and helping to place pipe bombs under Los Angeles Police Department patrol cars.

She was a member of the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA), a violent leftist group notorious for kidnapping newspaper heiress Patty Hearst.

In her letter, Kiffmeyer, now a state representative, asked Gaertner to determine whether Olson participated multiple times in Minnesota elections under her alias, a felony.

"Soliah is back in Minnesota, much to the chagrin of law enforcement officials and many citizens in California and Minnesota," Kiffmeyer wrote. "Consequently, I am wondering, pursuant to our prior conversations, what, if anything, you intend to do with the case at this point."

In her letter, Kiffmeyer said that when she was secretary of state she met with Gaertner seeking answers about Olson but that Gaertner told her at the time that her office had more important cases to work on.

In an interview Tuesday, Gaertner called Kiffmeyer's account of the meeting "irresponsible" and "inaccurate."

"It's obviously just another attempt to play politics with criminal justice issues and, in particular, Sara Jane Olson," Gaertner said.

"Ms. Kiffmeyer is incorrect in stating that we didn't investigate this case back in 1999," she added. "We did, and we communicated to her at the time that there was an investigation in the case."

Mark Brunswick • 651-222-1636

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