UKIAH ATTORNEY KILLED IN PLANE CRASH

A Mendocino County attorney with a national reputation died early
Friday in a small plane crash in southern Utah.

Susan B. Jordan, 67, of Redwood Valley, died along with the plane's
other occupant, John Austin, 64, of Boulder.

The Garfield County sheriff's office said the aircraft may have been
flying too low and clipped a power line on state Highway 12 before
skidding into a bridge.

Sheriff's spokeswoman Becki Bronson said the county received several
complaints about a low-flying plane shortly before the crash, which
happened shortly before 9 a.m. Friday about halfway between Escalante
and Boulder.

Jordan's friends and colleagues on Friday were stunned by the news
and mourning her loss.

She was bigger than life," said Ukiah-based attorney Ann Moorman.
"She was my mentor and teacher and friend."

Susan's death is a shocking event. Small in stature, she has been a
humanitarian and legal giant for decades," said Mendocino County
District Attorney Meredith Lintott.

Jordan was well known for her civil liberties defenses and for
defending women charged with violent crimes.

She was the first lawyer to successfully bring a battered women's
defense" in a homicide case, Moorman said, citing the 1970s homicide
case against Inez Garcia.

Jordan also had represented Sara Jane Olson, a former member of the
Symbionese Liberation Army who was captured in 1999 after living
under an assumed name for almost 24 years following the bombing of
two police cars in Los Angeles.

When the late Earth First! activist Judi Bari was being investigated
for the 1990 bombing of her own vehicle in Oakland, Jordan was her
attorney, Moorman said.

She currently was litigating a medical marijuana case in federal
court on behalf of an East Bay marijuana cooperative, she said.

Jordan was born in New York and studied law in Chicago, Moorman said.
For a time she lived in both the Bay Area and Mendocino County but
had settled down in Redwood Valley.

She was married to attorney Ronnie Wong and had a daughter, Jennifer,
Moorman said.

While a dedicated lawyer, Jordan had broader interests. She taught
meditation to lawyers and was passionate about the outdoors, yoga and
her family, Moorman said.

She lived every day in the meaningful way," she said.

In all different ways, she was a leader," said Mendocino County
Superior Court Judge Dave Nelson.

Austin was a California health executive who owned a ranch in
Boulder, according to the Web site of KSL radio in Salt Lake City, Utah.