SACRAMENTO READY FOR UNABOMB TRIAL : CITY BRACES FOR UNABOMBER CRUSH.

Byline: Mitchel Benson Knight-Ridder Tribune News Wire

When Unabomber suspect Theodore Kaczynski's jet touches down here Monday night at the old Mather Air Force Base, he'll be landing in a city that has spent the last week busying itself for his ignominious arrival.

Named earlier this week in a 10-count indictment connected to four bombings, Kaczynski faces three charges that carry the death penalty. After a court hearing in Helena, Mont., on Friday that cleared the way, the 54-year-old, onetime college professor will arrive in Sacramento - under heavy guard and dressed in a protective vest and restraints - weeks if not months before his trial is expected to begin.

Even so, Sacramento businesses and law enforcement are preparing to supplant San Jose and Los Angeles as home to California's next media-frenzied, emotionally charged mega-trial. And three blocks down Capitol Mall from the federal courthouse where Kaczynski will be tried, the folks at the California Forestry Association are among the many in town who view the location of the coming trial as a mixed blessing.

``We need to be there. I feel almost a pressure to want to see this guy face to face,'' said Donn Zea, vice president of the timber group. ``There's almost a responsibility for us to finally close the loop and see this guy face to face.''

There is no pleasure in Zea's voice, only a sense of duty and obligation, as he explains why he must attend Kaczynski's trial even if only for a day or two.

Zea was a friend and business associate of Gilbert Murray, the then-president of the forestry association whom federal authorities say was the victim of the Unabomber's last fatal attack on April 24, 1995. Two of the three people killed in Unabomber explosions died in Sacramento. ``On the one hand, we recognize that the broadest and fullest case can be brought against him here,'' said David Bischel, the man who replaced Murray as president of the timber group.

``On the other hand, it's going to have a very emotional impact on our daily lives and will continually be dredging up the emotions and trauma associated with Gil's death. It will have an impact on everybody.''

Sacramento police officials already were complaining this week, when a federal grand jury released the 10-count indictment naming Kaczynski as the Unabomber, who mounted a 17-year wave of terror that injured 23 people. Television trucks parked illegally on the grassy Capitol Mall median strip in front of the federal courthouse.

``Actually, the media frenzy started on Tuesday,'' said Jamie Brown, a police official. Police asked - and the TV engineers agreed - to move the trucks, and no one was ticketed. Since then, the city has agreed to set aside one-third of a city parking lot across the street from the courthouse for the vehicles.

The U.S. Marshals Service, which is responsible for transporting and protecting Kaczynski, hope to keep the media madness down to a low roar. Their technique? Trying to keep the media as well informed as possible of their charge's movements.

``We don't need you running around all hell and tarnation,'' said Mike Nelson, the chief deputy U.S. marshal in Sacramento, when he told reporters Friday why his office was offering the details of Kaczynski's arrival.

At all times he is moved, Nelson said, Kaczynski will be wearing that protective vest and those chain restraints. Marshals will use an armored Chevrolet Suburban (``Mr. Kaczynski is very notorious'') to transport him back and forth between his high-rise cell at the Sacramento County Jail and the courthouse.

At the jail, he'll be housed alone in a cell on the eighth floor, the level reserved for disciplinary cases, administrative segregation inmates and those of particular notoriety.

Why? ``Just because of who he is,'' said sheriff's department spokeswoman Sharon Telles. ``He's coming in for the trial of the century as far as the Unabomber case is concerned. Inmates probably are worse than most people in gossiping. He'd be an oddity to have in the general population.''

The federal government will pay Sacramento County $62.23 a day to house the former University of California-Berkeley math professor in his 72-square-foot cell.

He'll spend at least 23 hours a day in the cell, eating all his meals there, and will have the option of stretching his legs one hour a day in an enclosed exercise area.

``We don't expect any trouble,'' Telles said. ``We have drunks and drug addicts that give us more trouble on a nightly basis. From what we understand, in Montana he's been a model prisoner. It's not like we are worried about someone trying to take him out, but why ask for trouble?''

The judge for the case has already been named, chosen randomly by a computer in the hours after the indictment was announced. Garland E. Burrell Jr. was appointed to the federal bench in March 1992 after stints in the U.S. attorney's office, Sacramento city attorney's office and Sacramento County district attorney's office.

The 48-year-old judge ``is very thoughtful and in control,'' Donald H. Heller, a defense attorney who has appeared before Burrell, told the Los Angeles Times this week. ``He will not be a Judge (Lance) Ito. He will be in control of his courtroom.''

Courthouse insiders say the scuttlebutt is that Burrell's regular courtroom up on the fourth floor will not be the site of the Unabomber trial. Its small size and ``security concerns'' are the reasons, said court officers who requested anonymity.

Arraignment and trial dates have not been set. But Nelson, the chief deputy U.S. marshal, said his staff is already planning for increased security measures at the courthouse.

At least for the pretrial hearings, anyone entering the courtroom will be required to pass through a second set of metal detectors and X-ray machines, in addition to the set positioned at the entrance to the building.

A couple of miles east of downtown, the prerequisites for admittance to the Radisson Hotel won't be quite so strict. The Radisson was the first hotel - perhaps even the first business of any sort - to capitalize on the trial.

In a release issued Tuesday, the hotel announced special rates and privileges - including free beer and wine every night from 5 to 7 p.m. - for journalists covering the Unabomber trial. Perhaps as important as the free booze, the Radisson is offering journalists a free shuttle between the hotel and the federal courthouse.

Cherie Piper, the hotel's director of sales and marketing, said the hotel is setting aside 150 rooms for the Unabomber special.

``We just knew that with the trial coming to Sacramento it would be a major media event, and we were trying to position ourselves,'' Piper said. ``Heads and beds is the name of the game.''

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Photo

PHOTO U.S. marshals guard Theodore Kaczynski as he leaves c ourt Friday in Montana.

Associated Press