SACRAMENTO -- When federal prosecutors disclosed that Unabomber suspect Theodore Kaczynski allegedly kept a diary with contemporaneous accounts of his crimes, they turned Friday's routine hearing into a news event.

With the courtroom packed with journalists, New Jersey Chief Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Cleary, the lead prosecutor in the case, made the disclosure as part of a straightforward argument to bring Kaczynski to trial much faster than defense lawyers desire.

Cleary peppered his argument with so many tantalizing tidbits about the prosecution's planned trial evidence against Kaczynski that U.S. District Judge Garland Burrell Jr. finally cut him short, saying, "I don't think I want the kind of detail you are going into right now."

Prosecutors declined comment after the hearing, but their in-court statements were quite a contrast to the subdued performance of Kaczynski's defense lawyers, Sacramento Federal Public Defender Quin Denvir and his co-counsel, Spokane Federal Defender Judy Clarke.

Denvir and Clarke tried merely to persuade Burrell to reject the government's attempt to start trial next March. The defense lawyers dwelt on the daunting task of sorting through 17 years of discovery, steering clear of anything as sensational as the government's mention of a confession-filled diary.

In an interview Friday afternoon, Denvir made no secret of his belief that Cleary walked into the courtroom with the intention of handing the media that juicy revelation. "It was clear he had prepared ahead of time to make those statements," Denvir said. "It was unexpected from our viewpoint and it certainly complicates further whether we can get a fair trial in this venue."

Defense lawyers already indicated in court papers earlier this month that they may move for a change of venue, despite the nationwide publicity in the Kaczynski case. A federal grand jury indicted Kaczynski in June, charging him with four bombings, including two murders in Sacramento.

The charges carry the potential for the death penalty. The prosecution team indicated Friday that it plans within two weeks to make its recommendation to Attorney General Janet Reno on that issue. Under Justice Department protocol, the attorney general makes the final decision, with defense lawyers given an opportunity to argue against the death penalty. Denvir said he has not made that argument to prosecutors at this juncture.

Cleary, meanwhile, tried to put to rest any speculation that the prosecution's case against the Montana recluse is circumstantial. "This is not a circumstantial case," Cleary told Judge Burrell.

The prosecutor said that when federal agents raided Kaczynski's one-room cabin this spring, they discovered a journal that detailed his day-to-day activities. In addition to musings on walks in the woods and other ordinary activities, Kaczynski's diary included admissions connecting him to each of the Unabomber's 16 documented attacks since 1978, Cleary maintained.

"These documents are the backbone of the government's case," Cleary remarked in court.

The prosecutor's other disclosures were not surprising, given the framework of the indictment. Cleary indicated that two other central elements in the case are the typewriter seized during the search of the cabin, which is believed to have been used to author Kaczynski's "manifesto," and forensic evidence linking the Unabomber's explosive devices and other items found in the cabin.

Denvir and Clarke have filed court papers suggesting that they may attempt to suppress the evidence seized during the cabin search, but such motions rarely succeed. The diary thus appears to be another piece of evidence that could foreclose an innocence defense.

"It might block a few avenues of credible defense," said Peter Robinson, a Santa Rosa defense lawyer and former federal prosecutor who is not involved in the case.

However, other defense lawyers not involved in the case say the journal does not necessarily rule out an insanity defense, which prosecutors appear to anticipate. The government's pleadings have made numerous references to the possibility that the defense team will mount some sort of psychiatric defense.

Three top defense lawyers said Friday that a personal journal can fit into a psychiatric defense, depending on the content. "Crazy people keep diaries," said San Francisco defense specialist Dennis Riordan. "If it's a whodunit, it can be devastating. If the defense is psychological, I don't know that the statements in themselves would be inconsistent with the defense."

Former San Francisco U.S. Attorney Joseph Russoniello, meanwhile, was blunt in his assessment of the evidence, particularly given that an insanity defense is what he called a defense of "last resort."

"It's very damning and it will get in [to evidence]," Russoniello said of the diary. "It's a further strong piece of evidence that he's the guy."

Burrell late Friday refused for now to go along with the government's proposed trial schedule, which would have put Kaczynski before a jury by next spring. Prosecutors told the judge that they estimate it will take three to four months to put on their case.

The judge sided with defense lawyers, who called it unprecedented to move such a complex case to trial within a year. Burrell set a hearing for November to discuss setting a firm trial date.

Friday's hearing, incidentally, was the first appearance by Clarke, the recently installed head of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and a co-counsel in the Susan Smith murder trial in South Carolina. If the hearing was any indication, Clarke will take an in-court role at least equal to Denvir's: She handled much of the argument before Burrell.

--Senior writer Howard Mintz's e-mail address is hmintz@counsel.com

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