LOS ANGELES — After striking a plea deal Wednesday, Sara Jane Olson repaired to a Bel Air residence for a subdued dinner with family and friends.

The hostess, a retired lawyer and Olson supporter, served French country fare and Olson's 19-year-old daughter, Sophie, performed jazz songs at the piano. With the former radical still facing life in prison for the attempted bombing of police cars, the mood was hardly celebratory. But at least for an evening, supporters said, the pressure of a trial and the uncertainty of its outcome were gone.

"It was a nice evening," said Mary Sutton, the coordinator of the Sara Olson Defense Committee in Los Angeles. "Despite the circumstances."

In the coming months, however, Olson will face not only imprisonment, but a million-dollar civil suit, which could bankrupt her already strapped family, and the potential for more criminal charges from a long dormant murder case in Sacramento.

"I am concerned about legal action against me while I am in prison," Olson acknowledged immediately after she pleaded guilty Wednesday.

The 54-year-old former associate of the Symbionese Liberation Army, the violent leftist group that kidnapped Patty Hearst, will be sentenced December 7 and enter prison in January. She hopes to serve her time in Minnesota.

Because of changes to the law between the crimes and her 1999 arrest, Olson's sentence will be decided by a prison board. The two attempted bombings charges together carry a five-year sentence, but prosecutors are likely to press the board to label her a serious offender and lengthen her term to perhaps as long as life. The defense plans to fight that, and her support committee issued a statement Thursday reassuring friends that the chance of her spending life in prison is "slim to none."

A task force of federal and local agents in Sacramento is still working on a case potentially targeting Olson and several members of the SLA for the 1975 murder of Myrna Opsahl, a mother of four who was killed during a bank robbery by the group. Anyone involved in the robbery could be charged with felony murder. Hearst claims Olson, while not the shooter, was an active participant, a charge Olson has repeatedly denied.

The Sacramento District Attorney's Office, which has been accused of foot-dragging by the victim's family, said Thursday that Olson's plea deal has no effect on the investigation. But a spokeswoman said the evidence about the robbery gathered by the Los Angeles prosecutors — evidence L.A. claims is persuasive — is still arriving in Sacramento.

"It is part of our review process, and we have not received all of it from them," said Sacramento Deputy District Attorney Robin Shakely.

Several Los Angeles investigators had photos of a smiling Myrna Opsahl taped to the leather-bound notebooks they brought to court Thursday, and Opsahl's son, Jon, said he hoped Olson's plea was a prelude to a Sacramento trial.

"There is no closure for me," he said.

Olson's plea is likely to speed a year-old civil suit against her by former L.A. police officer James "Jay" Bryan, who was driving the car under which she planted a pipe bomb in August 1975. The bomb, described by prosecutors as the largest such pipe bomb in U.S. history, did not explode. Bryan is seeking millions of dollars in damages for emotional distress, which he claims led him to leave the force.

"I am very happy that she's finally admitted her wrongdoing," said Bryan.

Bryan's lawyer, Bradley Gage, said the plea deal means Olson will be found automatically responsible and his client will only have to demonstrate that he suffered emotional distress as a result.

"It means we have won," said Gage. "She's admitted to attempting to kill him."

Olson's declaration outside the courtroom that she was innocent and had pleaded guilty to the charges only because she could not get a fair trial will have "zero effect," he said.

It is unclear, however, whether Bryan would be able to collect any money if he won his suit. To pay for her defense, Olson and her husband, emergency room doctor Gerald "Fred" Peterson, liquidated their retirement accounts and their daughters' college savings and remortgaged their home. Ultimately, the court declared Olson indigent and the county began footing her legal bills.

"There's no money left," said Olson supporter, Hadassa Gilbert.

Bryan said, "I don't know if that's true or not, but we're still going to pursue the civil angle."

The retired officer, who plans to speak at Olson's hearing, added that he hoped to recover a wanted poster of Olson which he had kept on his office wall for the 24 years she was a fugitive. Prosecutors took the poster as evidence during the investigation.

"I miss it. I've been looking at it for a long time," he said before adding, "But maybe I should just put it to rest as well.