NATION IN BRIEF : MASSACHUSETTS : Mistrial Declared in Racketeering Case

A judge declared a mistrial in the racketeering case of three 1970s radicals, two days after they were cleared of charges of plotting to overthrow the government. U.S. District Judge William Young in Springfield, Mass., declared a mistrial after the jury was unable to decide whether the group’s alleged bombing exploits constituted racketeering. Prosecutors claim that Raymond L. Levasseur, his wife, Patricia Gros Levasseur, and Richard C. Williams were part of a group that took responsibility for a string of bombings and bank robberies along the East Coast from 1976 to 1984. Young set a hearing Jan. 5 in Boston, when the government will decide whether to retry the racketeering charges.