Linda J. Karlen has asked Mercer County Common Pleas Court to overturn her 1993 arson conviction.

Her petition for post conviction relief, filed Monday, also asks for a court-appointed attorney. President Judge Francis J. Fornelli denied her request for free legal counsel on Wednesday because of a reference in her petition that indicated she already has an attorney.

Ms. Karlen, formerly of Sharon and Greenville, is serving 7 to 15 years in the Ohio Reformatory for Women for her role in helping lure Thiel College student Roger "Butch" Pratt to the Ohio field where he was beaten to death in June 1988.

Edward Swiger Jr., who roomed with Pratt in a fraternity house, was sentenced to life in prison on charges of aggravated murder and kidnapping. Ed's brother, Michael A. Swiger, of Euclid, Ohio, is serving a 21- to 53-year sentence after being convicted of kidnapping and involuntary manslaughter.

Prosecutors at the time said the brothers, as well as Ms. Karlen, feared Pratt would turn them in for setting fire to the Old Towne Furniture warehouse in Greenville. Both Swigers and Ms. Karlen were convicted in connection with that fire.

Ms. Karlen was sentenced by former Judge Thomas T. Frampton to 5 to 10 years for her role in the arson. The sentence was to be served immediately after her release from prison in Ohio.

In the last two months, Ms. Karlen has discovered evidence that she claims would grant her relief from her arson conviction and sentence. That evidence, according to her petition, came in the form of two letters she received from Michael Swiger.

In the first, dated Feb. 28, Swiger wrote: "Lin, I have no problem with stating for the record that you did not hire me ... to burn down the store; that that message came through Ed and while I believed him at the time, I have reason to doubt his truthfulness as I have subsequently learned that many things he told me turned out to be untrue."

In the second letter, dated March 14, Swiger wrote: "I spoke to my lawyer this past week. He said he heard from your lawyer and was waiting to talk to me before he returned the call. The bottom line is this -- he has no problem with me giving you an affidavit, but only after my retrial is settled in Summit County. His reasoning is that he doesn't want me further complicating an already complicated case before I find out if Summit County intends to seek the death penalty ..."

Ms. Karlen's petition goes on to claim the sole reason she entered an Alford plea was because of the testimony given by Michael Swiger that asserted she had hired him to set the fire. In her Alford plea, which is a guilty plea, she maintained she was innocent but conceded prosecutors had evidence that most likely would have resulted in a guilty verdict.

She doesn't deny knowledge of the arson, but claims she was not "the principal behind the crime."

Among her grounds for relief from the arson sentence, Ms. Karlen states: Her plea was induced by Swiger's testimony because she feared possibly being convicted on six charges instead of the sole count of the plea and that she is innocent; and at the time of the arson trial in 1993, this new evidence was unavailable and would have changed the outcome of the trial if it had been introduced.

Fornelli did not deny Ms. Karlen a chance to have her arson conviction overturned; he only denied her request for a court-appointed attorney. He also said he wanted to know the name of the lawyer mentioned in Michael Swiger's March 14 letter, whether that lawyer still represents her, whether that lawyer is being paid, and if so, where she is getting the money.

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