Unabomb Suspect Must Take Mental Exam

A federal judge late Friday ordered Unabomber suspect Theodore Kaczynski to submit to a mental examination by a government expert.

Kaczynski’s attorneys had argued that such a face-to-face exam was unwarranted, and that prosecutors instead could rely on medical and other records of their client.

But U.S. District Judge Garland E. Burrell Jr. said that approach would pose “the risk of having the prosecution surprised with expert testimony.” In turn, that could trigger a delay in the trial, scheduled to begin Nov. 12.

“Given the nature of the psychiatric skill involved in unmasking ‘the human personality,’ ” Burrell said, “. . . it would be unfair to the government to permit Kaczynski to use expert testimony without allowing the government the opportunity to prepare an effective means to rebut the testimony.”

Prosecutors are expected to move quickly to have their own independent expert determine Kaczynski’s mental condition.

Kaczynski, 55, a Harvard University-trained mathematician, faces 10 felony counts related to two fatal Sacramento bombings and to blasts that seriously injured two academicians. He has pleaded not guilty.

Lawyers for Kaczynski have indirectly indicated they intend to seek testimony from their own experts about Kaczynski’s mental condition.

On Friday, Burrell also ordered Kaczynski’s defense team to spell out more clearly “the mental disease, defect or condition” their expert may seek to establish during the trial.

Kaczynski was arrested at his remote Montana cabin in April 1996 after a lengthy investigation sparked by a series of bombings that began in 1978 and targeted those involved in advanced technology.

In another order issued Friday, Burrell rejected Kaczynski’s bid to suppress the mountain of evidence found during the search of his cabin near the Continental Divide.

Kaczynski’s lawyers had described the government’s search warrant as overly broad. Moreover, his attorneys said, federal authorities seized innocuous items such as mittens, scarves and a metal frying pan.

But Burrell said federal agents had acted in good faith in executing the search warrant.