Woman who booby trapped road for motorcyclists gets 5 years
GOOD!! I hope she rots there. This is just a few miles from my home, and when it first happened I was absolutely shocked. The man she tried to MURDER had to have his face put back together with titanium plates. What this article doesn't make really clear is that it wasn't just a ROPE, it was a thick CABLE that crushed right through the front of his helmet.
**********************************
(05-18) 17:29 PDT SAN JOSE -- A woman convicted of using a booby-trap to bring down a motorcyclist on a remote road in the hills outside Los Gatos last year was sentenced today in a San Jose courtroom to five years in prison.
Donna Olsen, 47, was one of three people charged with stringing a taut rope across Loma Chiquita Road in unincorporated Santa Clara County that caught her neighbor, Robert Barnes, across the upper lip as he rode by with a group of friends.
The impact hurled Barnes about 30 feet from his motorcycle. The accident left him with 500 stitches, missing teeth and titanium plates in his head.
Another rider in his group suffered minor injuries in the May 6, 2006, incident; after he saw Barnes go down, he was able to slow before the rope was raised again, authorities said
Olsen's neighbor, Donald Bryant, 63, was also convicted in the attack and is awaiting sentencing as his attorney prepares a motion for a new trial, prosecutors said.
Edward Anderson, Olsen's longtime companion with whom she has two children, was acquitted at trial in December in a case that drew substantial interest among the motorcycling community and some environmentalists who oppose off-road vehicles in rural settings.
Before being sentenced in Santa Clara County Superior Court on two counts of assault with a deadly weapon and an enhancement for personally using a dangerous weapon, Olsen told Judge Paul Bernal she was upset about motorcyclists on the road after one had nearly hit her young daughter earlier in the day, causing the girl to fall to the ground, attorneys in the case said.
Olsen acknowledged knowing the rope was in place, but denied stringing it up, saying one of the two men had done it, without naming who, attorneys in the case said. Olsen said she was trying to take the rope down when someone else pulled it taught for the second rider.
She apologized to Barnes and said she didn't think he was the rider who had scared her daughter.
"When they did this, I don't think they knew it was Mr. Barnes who was riding the motorcycle," Deputy District Attorney Leigh Frazier said. "He was wearing a full face helmet. I don't think they knew they were doing this to their neighbor."
Olsen, who was on probation at the time for a misdemeanor drug offense, was given the maximum sentence possible. Her probation report shows convictions for misdemeanor driving under the influence, willful cruelty to a child, disturbing the peace and other offenses. "I think about how absolutely pointless this crime was," Frazier said. "Mr. Barnes has injuries to his head that have caused permanent disfigurement. ... The natural question is, 'Why would anyone do something so cruel and unmerited?' "
A case that began as seemingly senseless violence between neighbors became an unsavory legal battle that ultimately had two long-time companions opposing each other.
While Anderson, 49, posted his $100,000 bail shortly after being arrested, Olsen has been held on $25,000 bail since her arrest, authorities said. At the time, Anderson's home and property in the Los Gatos hills were appraised at about $900,000, he had land holdings out of state and he had his driveway repaved, Frazier said.
"I'm not sure what his motivation was, but she was certainly left in custody the entire time," said Olsen's attorney, Deputy Public Defender Shelyna Brown.
At trial, Olsen did not testify, but Bryant and Anderson took the stand and implicated her, Brown said.
"I think that was the plan from the outset: to make Miss Olsen the one holding the bag," Brown said. "They both testified, and they placed the blame on Miss Olsen. Period. It's as simple as that."
Anderson, reached on his cell phone, declined to comment on the case and hung up. Bryant could not be reached.
Frazier said it was "hard to know" who hatched the plan and set up the booby-trap.
"Miss Olsen didn't testify. Anderson and Bryant did, and they pointed fingers at everyone else but themselves," Frazier said. "They know who tied it, but they're not telling."
************************
Here's an interesting tidbit....
"she was upset about motorcyclists on the road after one had nearly hit her young daughter earlier in the day, causing the girl to fall to the ground"
"Her probation report shows convictions for...willful cruelty to a child"
...yet she was trying to murder someone for scaring a child???
The man who got hurt deserves so much compensation for this...unfortunately, this human piece of excrement probably doesn't have enough to even begin to make it up to him.
