Judge OKs Unabomb Trial in California

A federal judge Tuesday cleared the way for the first trial of Unabomber suspect Theodore J. Kaczynski in Sacramento next November.

U.S. District Judge Dickinson R. Debevoise made the ruling after Kaczynski, appearing by video teleconference from California, pleaded not guilty to charges that he murdered New Jersey advertising executive Thomas Mosser with a mail bomb two years ago.

Debevoise said he will decide in a few days if the Mosser case should be consolidated with a California case, in which Kaczynski is to go to trial Nov. 12 in Sacramento on charges that he killed two people and injured two others in four attacks. If the California and New Jersey cases are not consolidated, the judge said, Kaczynski will be prosecuted in Newark for Mosser’s slaying after the Sacramento trial.

Kaczynski, 54, appeared for the unusual teleconference dressed in a brown tweed sport jacket and open-collared shirt. An unkempt recluse when arrested in his Montana cabin eight months ago, Kaczynski sported a well-trimmed beard as he sat at a conference table in the federal public defender’s library in Sacramento.

“Yes, Your Honor, I can hear,” he said when Debevoise asked him if the video teleconference was adequate. Seen on four television monitors in the courtroom, Kaczynski frequently whispered with Judy Clarke, one of his California attorneys.

Asked by Debevoise if he waived his right to be present in person in New Jersey, the former Berkeley math professor replied: “Yes, I did sign the waiver.”

Debevoise had suggested the cross-country arrangement to save the government the risk and expense of transporting the defendant from California, where he has been held without bail since his arrest in April. In June, Kaczynski pleaded not guilty to 10 counts of bombing-related offenses that resulted in two deaths and injuries to 23 people.

Prosecutors want Kaczynski tried in separate trials, and they argued Tuesday that the New Jersey case should be first.

But Debevoise mainly sided with Kaczynski’s legal team, headed by Quin Denvir, the federal public defender in Sacramento. Bringing Kaczynski to trial in New Jersey in June would unduly burden the defense team as it seeks to prepare for the California trial, Denvir said.

Kacyznski’s attorneys also want all of the charges, which stretch over 17 years, consolidated in the California trial.

“Why try this case twice?” Debevoise asked prosecutors at one point.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Robert J. Cleary replied that a New Jersey murder should be tried where it occurred, even if it meant that Kaczynski would stand trial twice.

Mosser was killed exactly two years before Tuesday’s hearing--Dec. 10, 1994--when he opened a package in the kitchen of his northern New Jersey home. The package, which had been mailed from San Francisco, exploded as Mosser prepared to go shopping for a Christmas tree with his family.

His widow Susan and two sons attended Tuesday’s hearing but did not speak.

A letter that the Unabomber sent to newspapers in 1995 said that Mosser was killed because he worked for the firm of Burson-Marsteller, which the letter said helped Exxon clean up its public image after the Valdez oil spill in Alaska. Burson-Marsteller has denied working on the spill for Exxon.

The California charges relate to bombs that were either mailed from or exploded in Sacramento. The carefully crafted homemade devices killed computer store owner Hugh Scrutton in 1985 and timber industry lobbyist Gilbert Murray in 1995. They seriously injured University of California geneticist Charles Epstein and Yale University computer expert David Gelernter in 1993.

Because some mail bombs resulted in deaths, federal law allows prosecutors to seek the death penalty against Kaczynski. That decision ultimately will be made by Atty. Gen. Janet Reno, who is expected to announce a decision within a month based on recommendations by a special panel of Justice Department lawyers.