LOS ANGELES — Over Sara Jane Olson's continued claims of innocence, a judge Monday refused to let her withdraw her guilty pleas, ruling that the '70s radical turned soccer mom had struck a deal with prosecutors because she was guilty and not because she was bullied into it by her lawyer.

"I couldn't for a minute accept a guilty plea from a person that I believed was innocent, nor would I. I couldn't sleep," Judge Larry Fidler told the scowling Olson, who had twice admitted that she was guilty of attempting to bomb police cars in 1975. The judge, who did little to conceal his contempt for her and her defense team, paused a moment and then spat, "I intend to sleep very well tonight."

Olson, 54, stared stonily at the defense table, but her three daughters, aged 15 to 20, sobbed in the gallery, and her husband of two decades, Dr. Gerald "Fred" Peterson looked stricken. With the guilty pleas intact, Olson will serve five years to life, with a parole board making the ultimate determination of her sentence.

The judge's biting denial came at the end of a tortuous day-long hearing in which the dirty laundry of Olson's once-united defense was laid out before a packed courtroom. Lawyer Shawn Snider Chapman accused her co-counsel, J. Tony Serra, a famed radical attorney and a man Chapman once regarded as a professional hero, of berating Olson with insults and profanity to convince her to plead guilty. Serra, who was expected to testify that he indeed had coerced his client, simply never showed up at the hearing and later faxed the judge a letter saying bad "karma" at the airport made him miss his flight.

Despite the dramatic unraveling of the defense, Fidler refused to let Olson take back the pleas. After listening to prosecutors tick off the evidence they had accumulated against Olson, he told her "the facts show you're guilty" and said that her claims of innocence were merely posturing for supporters who "bought your story lock, stock and barrel."

Many people in Olson's hometown of St. Paul, Minn., rallied around in June 1999 when she was arrested by the FBI as Kathleen Soliah, a fugitive member of the Symbionese Liberation Army, the violent radical group that kidnapped Patty Hearst. Olson, now a community activist and doctor's wife, admitted she was Soliah, wanted for planting pipe bombs under police cars in 1975, but said she had never been a member of the SLA, nor committed the crimes. Neighbors and friends raised $1 million bail in only a week.

But in late October, with pretrial hearings and jury selection for her trial underway, Olson shocked everyone by cutting a deal and pleading guilty. Outside court and in the media, however, she continued to maintain her innocence and insisted she had only pleaded guilty because of the political climate created by the September 11 attacks. Fidler, infuriated by her comments, ordered her back into court to explain herself. On November 6, she reiterated her guilt in court, but within a few days had changed her mind again and filed an affidavit saying she was actually innocent and that "cowardice" had prevented her from doing the right thing.

At the hearing Monday, Chapman said the guilty pleas were the result of coercion by Serra. In a long monologue, during which she shifted on her feet and several times stared at the ceiling as if she could not believe her situation, the defense lawyer described how Serra had come into the case at the last minute and, in her opinion, botched it. She said Olson had never wanted to settle and had rejected repeated overtures from prosecutor Eleanor Hunter.

Chapman said there was a strange dynamic between Olson and her two attorneys. While Chapman did all of the day-to-day work, Olson most respected Serra, who had successfully defended other SLA members and had taken the co-counsel job pro bono, despite the fact that he had done little work on her case.

"She looks to him as her lead attorney," Chapman said, adding that Serra would not even return her calls.

As the trial was about to begin, Serra came to Los Angeles from San Francisco and ordered Olson to take the plea deal offered by prosecutors, Chapman said.

"He yelled and screamed and demanded that she accept the deal. She continued to express reluctance, and he continued to ... swear at her strongly that if she did not take the deal she would be a fool and an idiot," said Chapman. "Up until the last second she did not want to do this."

Fidler seemed dubious of Chapman's portrait of Serra, asking if she was suggesting "Mr. Serra is some sort of Svengali who overpowered a very intelligent woman?"

Chapman said, "His powers of persuasion, his presence are overwhelming."

She said Serra even lied to the judge when questioned about the veracity of comments Olson made to the press. Serra, Chapman said, assured the judge she was lying to the press and truthful in court when, in fact, the opposite was true.

Prosecutor Eleanor Hunter derided Chapman's argument as "the girl defense — I'm just a girl and I can't stand up to Mr. Serra."

Hunter argued that Olson was well-educated and old enough to stick up for herself.

"We're not dealing with a child here," she said. Afterward, outside court, Hunter said she had "no respect" for Chapman after that argument. "As a female attorney, for her to come in and say, 'I couldn't stand up to that man,' it's kind of insulting."

Olson made faces throughout Hunter's arguments and even interrupted her at one point to correct the pronunciation of her former surname.

"It's Sol-ee-uh," Olson shouted at Hunter, who had been emphasizing the second syllable, before being admonished for the outburst by the judge.

Prosecutors spent much of the afternoon presenting Fidler with the evidence that supported Olson's guilt. They showed the judge a replica of one of the explosives and described them as two of the "largest pipe bombs in U.S. history." Prosecutor Michael Latin said experts had linked the bombs to components found in a San Francisco safehouse used by the SLA. He also described fingerprint evidence and FBI surveillance photos showing that Olson had lived at the house. The prosecutors also told Fidler the physical evidence backed up the account of Hearst, who would testify that Olson went to Los Angeles intent on killing police officers.

Chapman said Olson admitted giving the SLA small amounts of money to help them survive, but said none of her crimes rose to the level of murder conspiracy or even aiding and abetting. She reminded the judge that she was a defense attorney in O.J. Simpson's murder case and compared the evidence to the prosecution case in that trial.

"This reminds me very much of that," said Chapman. "It's all really much ado about nothing."

Fidler shot back, "You think blowing up police officers is nothing?"

Chapman quickly back-pedaled, but it was clear Fidler was impressed with the prosecution's evidence.

Outside court, Chapman said she felt like a waitress who endures customers' criticism of the food. Serra was the chef, she said, and he should have been in court to take the insults.

"I am very disappointed in him. Very angry," she said.