(January 5) -- Opening arguments scheduled to begin today in the trial of Theodore Kaczynski were delayed as Kaczynski himself prompted a lengthy private meeting between him, his lawyers and the judge overseeing his trial.

The alleged Unabomber began the day by speaking up in court. Clutching a manila envelope in his hand this morning, Kaczynski sat in court and indicated he wanted to read something he had written and said he wanted to "revisit the issue of my relations with my attorneys."

"It's very important," he said.

He told U.S. District Judge Garland Burrell he could not stand up because federal marshals had told him not to.

Judge Burrell immediately stopped the proceedings and called for a meeting in chambers with the defendant and his lawyers.

By mid-afternoon, the jury was dismissed for the day without hearing a single word of the opening arguments both sides were ready to deliver. Talks between Kaczynski, his lawyers and Judge Burrell lasted until mid-afternoon, with the judge announcing a Wednesday afternoon hearing about opening arguments, possibly to discuss the statement Kaczynski wanted to read. The jurors are to return on Thursday morning, presumably to resume the trial.

Before his outburst in court this morning, Kaczynski's brother David and mother Wanda rushed into the courthouse silently, looking forlorn. They did not acknowledge a crowd of reporters gathered in front of the federal courthouse in Sacramento. In the courtroom, their faces were flush with tears as Kaczynski turned his back on them.

A source told the Associated Press that one issue Kaczynski wanted to discuss with the judge was the presence of his brother in the courtroom, and that Kaczynski had a "philosophical" statement he wanted to read before the proceedings began. During the meeting, according to an order by the judge, Kaczynski turned over a written statementm, which Burrell ordered sealed.

The morning also began with two Unabomber victims in the courtroom: Yale computer science professor David Gelernter and geneticist Charles Epstein, both injured in two separate June 1993 bomb attacks for which Kaczynski is on trial. Two other bombings, which killed computer store owner Hugh Scrutton and California Forestry Association president Gilbert Murray, will be covered in the trial.

After months of wrangling between the two sides over the use of mental health experts in the trial, the defense announced last week that they will not ask experts to take the stand to discuss their client's mental state. They are still expected to argue that their client committed the bombings he has been accused of because he has significant mental problems, and they filed additional papers today with the court, arguing their right to bring in so-called "lay testimony" and use writings by Kaczynski in support of their claim.

Prosecutors filed papers last week in an attempt to bar them from using any testimony whatsoever on that issue.

But the defense said today in their documents that "the government's argument misses the mark" and that to deny them the chance to include such testimony would amount to having the court "micro-manage" the evidence they plan to use.

"The jury is certainly entitled to consider the defendant's words and conduct in attempting to determine whether he had the necessary criminal intent," said the defense in their papers.

The government, which had planned to begin arguments today before U.S. District Judge Garland Burrell, is expected to argue that Kaczynski was calculating and devious in his planning and execution of the four bombings this trial will cover -- three in California and one in Connecticut.

Over the weekend, David Kaczynski's lawyer told the New York Times that the brother of the alleged Unabomber was concerned about a recent rejection by the Justice Department of a plea made by his brother's defense attorneys. The plea would have made Theodore Kaczynski plead guilty in exchange for the government sparing him from the death penalty.

David "could not understand what the government was trying to accomplish" by refusing the plea, said his lawyer, Anthony Bisceglie.

It was David Kaczynski who eventually provided the FBI with information that led them to Theodore Kaczynski's rural Montana cabin, once co-owned by the two brothers. He has claimed that investigators told him that if he assisted with the case, his brother's life would be spared.

Though the defense won't be using expert testimony, they can still call witnesses who know Kaczynski, such as his brother David, to testify about his erratic behavior. Mental health defenses can be used without introducing expert testimony, but such instances are rare.

However, on January 2, prosecutors filed a motion to bar the defense from presenting testimony by those close to Kaczynski in support of their argument that he suffers from mental defects. They also asked Judge Burrell to deny the defense the opportunity to bring into the trial photographs of Kaczynski during several periods in his life, as well as his sparse cabin, transported to Sacramento from Montana by the defense team to use as a key piece of evidence.

"Evidence of the defendant's appearance and lifestyle cannot conceivably be relevant to any issue other than the defendant's mental state," said prosecutors in court documents last week. "Without expert testimony, evidence that the defendant had an unkempt appearance at one time or that he lived in a small cabin has no logical connection to the defendant's ability to form the intent to commit the charged offenses."

Court papers released by Judge Burrell recently showed that Kaczynski had written letters indicating that he was at odds with his lawyers over the use of his mental health as a key issue in their defense strategy. Their recent change in strategy may be an indication of their concession to their client's wishes.

The court could also soon be forced to rule on the issue of Kaczynski's competency, due to his repeated protests about his defense team and his actions in court and in private meetings with his lawyers and Judge Burrell. The judge may have the option of finding Kaczynski incompetent to stand trial, based on those actions and the paranoid schizophrenia he is believed to suffer from.

The current trial will cover incidents in 1985 and 1995, as well as two bombings in 1993. A separate trial will cover charges against Kaczynski for a 1994 bombing in New Jersey.

Federal authorities believe that Kaczynski, 55, is the Unabomber, responsible for sixteen mail and package bombs that killed three people and injured 23 during between 1978 and 1995 in attacks across the country. He was arrested on April 3, 1996 in his Montana cabin, where he had lived for most of the past 26 years.

During the early stages of the case, federal authorities coined the name "Unabomber" because universities and airlines were early targets.