A Will County judge heard arguments Tuesday on whether a special prosecutor should be appointed to investigate the conduct of the Will County state’s attorney’s office regarding New Lenox business owners Jeff Regnier and Greta Keranen.
Regnier and Keranen, who own Kee Construction and Kee Firearms and Training in New Lenox, were charged with financial crimes and had their cars and investment assets seized in 2023.
The two were found not guilty of fraud charges last year. Their seized property was ordered returned, with Will County Judge Jennifer Lynch ruling that the pair’s Eighth Amendment rights had been violated.
Attorney Frank Andreano, who represents the couple, compared it to “a policeman giving one too many knocks to an arrestee.”
“When anyone in power visits any sort of constitutional injury on a citizen, an inquiry is warranted,” Andreano said in court Tuesday while arguing for the appointment of a special prosecutor.
The Will County state’s attorney’s office couldn’t fairly investigate its own conduct, Andreano argued.
Assistant State’s Attorney Dant Foulk asked Judge Barbara Petrungaro to dismiss the request, saying the accusations leveled against the Will County state’s attorney’s office were “speculation and conjecture” and that the motion contained “a wide range of materially false statements.”
The purpose of a special prosecutor is to investigate criminal conduct, Foulk said, “not to regulate civil asset forfeiture.”
“They don’t like forfeiture because law enforcement receives funds,” Foulk said.
Under Illinois law, 65% of forfeiture proceeds go to the arresting agency, 12.5% goes to the state’s attorney, 12.5% to the state appellate prosecutor and 10% to Illinois State Police. Andreano suggested that profit motive affected the state’s attorney’s decisionmaking in the Kee case.
“The prosecutor’s office and the police have a vested financial interest in the outcome of forfeiture actions,” Andreano said.
More Top Picks Dolls
In August, Lynch ruled Regnier and Keranen were entitled to potential damages against the state’s attorney’s office and the U.S. Secret Service related to the sale of their seized assets.
“The fair eye isn’t their eye,” Andreano said, referring to the Will County prosecutors. “Your honor could never adjudicate if you got into a fender-bender in the Jewel parking lot.”
Foulk argued that rather than seeking a special prosecutor, Regnier and Keranen should instead report their allegations, which he called a “pile of garbage,” to law enforcement, such as the Illinois State Police or the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Foulk also said the Illinois attorney general has the authority to review any case, including this one, and wouldn’t need to be appointed by the court to do so.
Andreano said in a case with so many legal complexities, someone well-educated on the law should be placed in charge of investigating.
In addition to Lynch’s Eighth Amendment ruling, Andreano cited a ruling by Will County Judge Brian Barrett, who dismissed the final forfeiture case against Keranen and Regnier in January and called the state’s actions disturbing.
“The government was going to get its pound of flesh and inflict its pain,” Barrett said. “This is disturbing on so many levels.”
Petrungaro will issue a ruling on whether to dismiss the request at a later date.
Regnier and Keranen have also separately asked that a special prosecutor take over the prosecution of the remaining criminal charges against them, arguing the Will County state’s attorney’s office has a financial conflict of interest in the case.