American Notes TRAFFIC

When Congress enacted the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act in 1970, federal prosecutors used it to attack organized crime. But Seal Beach, Calif., attorney Ernest J. Franceschi Jr. is suing the city of Huntington Beach, Calif., under the RICO statute for operating what he claims is an illegal speed trap. Franceschi charges that the city can't produce proof of a traffic-engineering survey justifying the use of radar on a busy stretch of road. He also says police have handed out about 100 tickets a day amounting to $20 million in fines over 10 years, and his class-action suit calls for the city to fork over $60 million in triple damages.

Angry police officials admit using radar but deny the speed-trap charge. If the class-action lawsuit is successful, the city will have to cough up the cash and the state will have to subtract at least one moving violation from the records of every driver nabbed along that stretch of the highway. "What can I tell you?" says Franceschi. "They got me three times in two years."