LOS ANGELES — Sara Jane Olson's decision to plead guilty in court and innocent in the media landed her in trouble with the trial judge in her bombing case Thursday.

Judge Larry Fidler scheduled a hearing for Tuesday to determine whether the guilty pleas she entered as part of a last-minute deal with prosecutors are valid in light of declarations of innocence afterward. The judge has the power to throw out the deal and order Olson's defense to prepare for trial.

Under the surprise deal inked Wednesday afternoon, the 54-year-old former associate of the radical Symbionese Liberation Army admitted planting bombs under police cars in 1975 and prosecutors dropped a more serious murder conspiracy charge. They also agreed not to object to her serving her sentence in Minnesota, where she lived during 24 years as a fugitive. She faces a sentence of five years to life, to be determined next year by a California prison board.

But after telling Fidler she was guilty of two counts of attempted bombing with intent to murder, Olson stepped into a courthouse hallway and announced to a bank of cameras and microphones that she was actually innocent. She took the guilty pleas, she claimed, because the September 11 attacks made it impossible to get a fair trial.

"I pleaded guilty to something of which I am not guilty," she said, adding that she never planted the bombs and had no regrets.

Her lawyers, Shawn Snider Chapman and J. Tony Serra, standing next to her, also asserted her innocence and said the pleas were an acknowledgement that she might be convicted, but not an admission of guilt. Chapman added that Olson wanted to plead no contest, but that prosecutors insisted on a guilty plea.

"Justice weeps for Sara Jane Olson. She truly is a victim of September 11th," Serra said at the press conference. "We didn't have a level playing field in this case."

The protestations of innocence stood in marked contrast to an exchange between prosecutor Eleanor Hunter and Olson moments before in the court.

"Are you pleading guilty to these two counts because in truth and in fact you are guilty as charged and in fact there is a factual basis to this plea?" Hunter asked.

Olson, seated between her attorneys, replied, "Yes."

Chapman did not return calls Thursday.

Prosecutors said Thursday that they had not asked for the hearing, but had no qualms about taking the case to trial if Fidler threw out the plea deal.

"It's fine with us because we said all along that the evidence is overwhelming," said Sandi Gibbons, spokeswoman for the district attorney's office.

Prosecutors said that, at trial, they would prove that Olson, the former Kathleen Soliah, was a member of the SLA, a violent leftist group that kidnapped Patty Hearst. Olson, who allegedly joined the group after the infamous kidnapping, went underground as police closed in on the group. Over 24 years, she built a life in St. Paul, Minn., as a doctor's wife and community activist.