Lawsuit Claims Huntington Beach Runs a Speed Trap : Litigation: A thrice-ticketed attorney files a class action in federal district court using federal anti-racketeering law. He is asking $60 million in damages for a 10-year period.

In an unusual use of the federal anti-racketeering law, a lawyer filed suit Tuesday in U.S. District Court charging that the city of Huntington Beach has for 10 years illegally engaged in the “racket” of running a speed trap on Pacific Coast Highway.

The suit, filed by Ernest J. Franceschi Jr., 33, of Seal Beach, is a class-action measure that seeks $60 million in damages and the overturning of convictions or bail forfeitures for all motorists cited in the alleged speed trap during the past 10 years.

“I don’t know how many people will be affected, but I’m guessing in the thousands,” Franceschi said in a telephone interview. “I’m estimating that police have issued about 100 citations a day in the speed trap.”

Franceschi said he learned of the alleged speed trap because he was cited three times by Huntington Beach police within the past 18 months while driving on Pacific Coast Highway between Warner Avenue and Main Street. All three of his citations were dismissed, he said, when he successfully accused the city of running a speed trap.

California law defines a “speed trap” as being a portion of a highway where radar enforcement is used and which has a speed limit not justified by an engineering and traffic survey within the past five years.

“To our knowledge, they’ve never done a traffic-engineering survey (for that portion of Pacific Coast Highway) and they’ve been using radar there for at least 10 years for time-distance computations,” Franceschi said.

He said that he took an unusual route in filing his suit under anti-racketeering law, which typically has been used against organized crime.

According to federal law, “racketeering activity” can involve murder, kidnap, gambling, arson, robbery, bribery, extortion or dealing in narcotics. Franceschi’s suit charges that Huntington Beach, by operating an alleged speed trap, was engaging in “extortion.”

Huntington Beach Mayor Thomas J. Mays, who is among defendants in the suit, said Tuesday that he had not yet been served with a copy of the suit and knew no details of it.

“I have no idea what he’s talking about, and I don’t know anything about a speed trap,” Mays said. “I’ve been on the City Council since 1986 and I’ve never heard anything about a speed trap.”

Police Chief Ron Lowenberg, also a defendant, could not be reached for comment.

The suit calculated that Huntington Beach and the West Orange County Judicial District have collected at least $20 million over the past 10 years in forfeited bail or fines stemming from arrests made in the alleged speed trap. The suit asks for triple that amount in damage, or $60 million.

“With bail going at $175 in most of these cases, and figuring 100 citations, seven days a week, for 10 years, well, you can see the city piled up a lot of money,” Franceschi said.

Other defendants in the suit are West Orange County Municipal Court, Orange County government and former Dist. Atty. Cecil Hicks.