KACZYNSKI `PARANOID,' COMPETENT; PLEA NEGOTIATIONS FOLLOW DIAGNOSIS.

Byline: Linda Deutsch Associated Press 

The federal prison psychiatrist who found Unabomber suspect Theodore Kaczynski competent to stand trial also diagnosed him as a paranoid schizophrenic, The Associated Press learned Tuesday.

Meanwhile, other sources close to the case said a 47-page report by Dr. Sally Johnson of the federal Bureau of Prisons had sparked renewed plea negotiations in Washington between the Justice Department and Kaczynski's defense.

Kaczynski has offered to plead guilty to Unabomber charges to escape the death penalty, but the government repeatedly has refused.

Johnson had reached her conclusion after a full week of interviews with Kaczynski. She found that Kaczynski was competent to stand trial, ``despite the psychiatric diagnoses described in the attached report,'' according to the cover letter to her report.

The letter did not identify the diagnoses, and the contents of her report were sealed by the judge. But sources close to the case who spoke on condition of anonymity said Johnson concluded that Kaczynski suffers from paranoid schizophrenia.

The disease is often characterized by delusions of persecution and can lead to violence.

But Johnson found that the disease would not interfere with Kaczynski's ability to understand the proceedings of his trial and assist his lawyers with his defense - the only criteria for competence.

Kaczynski's defense team has long contended that the defendant is mentally ill - a contention the defendant himself adamantly resists. The government has opposed the introduction of mental health issues in the trial, primarily because Kaczynski repeatedly refused to be examined by court-appointed psychiatrists.

However, three affidavits from therapists hired by the defense were submitted earlier in the case. They concluded that Kaczynski's intelligence masked a serious mental illness, and said his refusal to be labeled mentally ill was a symptom of his disease.

It was only when faced with the denial of his request to represent himself that Kaczynski agreed to talk to a doctor; the judge selected Johnson from within the federal system.

Anthony Bisceglie, the lawyer for Kaczynski's brother, David, said in Washington: ``If this conservative, government-employed expert concluded he is paranoid schizophrenic, that should be enough impetus to take the death penalty off the table.''

U.S. District Judge Garland Burrell Jr. said on Tuesday that he plans to seat the jury and start opening statements Thursday, leaving little time for further changes in the trial plans.

At a hearing Tuesday morning, Burrell indicated that Kaczynski's request to be his own attorney had come too late in the proceeding. Burrell said Kaczynski clearly had agreed to proceed with his current lawyers after a series of private meetings with the judge in December. Later, Kaczynski changed his mind.

Burrell suggested that if Kaczynski wanted to be his own lawyer, he should have made the motion when the trial began.

``We're not in a pretrial hearing,'' the judge said. ``We're in trial. This case commenced on Nov. 12, 1997.''

The judge said his only concern is ``an ambiguity'' in the record of his meetings with Kaczynski and the defense lawyers. Kaczynski could have believed that when the defense agreed not to use mental health experts in the guilt phase of the trial, it would not raise the mental issue at all, Burrell said.

``I am still analyzing the record in regard to this matter,'' he said.

Kaczynski apparently balked when he found out that the defense intended to show jurors before-and-after pictures of the Harvard-educated math professor and the hairy, wild-eyed Montana hermit arrested in April 1996.

The defense also plans to use lay witnesses, possibly including Kaczynski's brother, to show a pattern of mental illness in the defendant's childhood.

Kaczynski's mother, Wanda, and brother sat in a front row of the packed courtroom for Tuesday's hearing. David Kaczynski, who first alerted the government that his brother might be the elusive Unabomber, has protested the government's decision to seek the death penalty for his brother.

Kaczynski is charged in a 10-count indictment with attacks that maimed two scientists and killed two Sacramento men. Prosecutors also hope to link him to all attacks attributed to the anti-technology Unabomber, which killed three people and injured 29 others over 18 years.

Defense lawyers Judy Clarke and Quin Denvir also filed court papers Tuesday seeking any information the government might have related to ``secret shacks'' Kaczynski might have built in the Montana wilderness.

Kaczynski's journals refer to such hide-outs, saying he needed them because ``there's no place to escape civilization'' and he hoped to have ``one place at least where I can still feel sure of privacy.''

Government lawyers responded that ``only Kaczynski knows the precise location of such `secret shacks.' '' Prosecutors said they had been unable to determine whether any of the structures they found belong to Kaczynski, who has refused repeated requests for his assistance.

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PHOTO Unabomber defense team members Quin Denvir, left, Gary Sowards and Judy Clarke walk to court Tuesday.

Associated Press