“Yes.”
—Sara Jane Olson, aka Kathleen Ann Soliah, responding on Nov. 6 to Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler’s question, “You wish your plea to stand?” This exchange was reported by Anna Gorman in the Nov. 7 Los Angeles Times. Previously, Olson pleaded guilty to attempting to blow up two Los Angeles police cars in 1975, then promptly told reporters, as she was leaving the courthouse, “I pleaded to something of which I am not guilty.” In response, an angry Judge Fidler called the Nov. 6 hearing, at which Olson said, “I did not make that bomb. I did not possess that bomb. And I did not plant that bomb. But under the concept of aiding and abetting, I plead guilty.” (Click here to see Olson’s 1976 indictment.)
“After deeper reflection, I realize I cannot plead guilty when I know I am not.”
—Olson, in a subsequent legal motion, as reported by Steve Berry in the Nov. 15 Los Angeles Times. JudgeFidler has scheduled another hearing for Nov. 28, which should leave Olson time to change her plea two or three times more. To help pay for her defense, Olson has published a cookbook with the strikingly non-contrite title, Serving Time: America’s Most Wanted Recipes. (Click here for Olson’s artichoke and parmesan dip.) And yes, Weatherman-turned-memoirist Bill Ayers is on Olson’s defense fund committee.
Got a whopper? Send it to chatterbox@slate.com. To be considered, an entry must be an unambiguously false statement paired with an unambiguous refutation, and both must be derived from some appropriately reliable public source. Preference will be given to newspapers and other documents that Chatterbox can link to online.
Whopper Archive:
Nov. 9, 2001: Donald Rumsfeld (item includes retraction)
Nov. 2, 2001: Dick Armey
Oct. 26, 2001: Gale Norton
Oct. 19, 2001: State Department Deputy Spokesman Philip Reeker
Oct. 12, 2001: Clarence Thomas
Oct. 5, 2001: Abdul Salam Zaeef
Sept. 27, 2001: Karl Rove, Ari Fleischer, and Dick Cheney
Sept. 20, 2001: Larry C. Johnson
Sept. 13, 2001: Yasser Arafat
Sept. 7, 2001: Tommy Thompson
Aug. 30, 2001: HHS Spokesman Bill Pierce
Aug. 23, 2001: Variety Editor Peter Bart
Aug. 17, 2001: Tom Daschle
Aug 10, 2001: Robert Mueller
Aug. 3, 2001: Barbara Olson
July 27, 2001: Jeffrey Archer
July 20, 2001: George W. Bush
July 13, 2001: George W. Bush
July 6, 2001: Sumner Redstone
June 29, 2001: David Brock
June 22, 2001: Edmund Morris
June 15, 2001: George W. Bush
June 8, 2001: Nepali Prince Regent (subsequently, King) Gyanendra
June 1, 2001: Mary McGrory
May 25, 2001: Ari Fleischer
May 18, 2001: York, Pa., Mayor Charles Robertson
May 11, 2001: Ted Olson
May 4, 2001: Rear Adm. Craig Quigley
April 27, 2001: Ben Affleck
April 20, 2001: South Carolina state legislator Chip Limehouse
April 13, 2001: Gray Davis
April 6, 2001: Sumner Redstone
March 30, 2001: Spencer Abraham
March 23, 2001: George W. Bush, Rep. Jennifer Dunn, and/or the Treasury Department
March 16, 2001: George W. Bush
March 9, 2001: Russ Freyman, spokesman, National Association of Manufacturers
March 2, 2001: Paul O’Neill
Feb. 23, 2001: Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton
Feb. 16, 2001: Oscar spokesman John Pavlik
Feb. 9, 2001: Lynne Cheney
Feb. 2, 2001: Bobby Thomson
Jan. 26, 2001: Denise Rich
