Following a Will County judge’s ruling last month that a pair of New Lenox business owners were entitled to potential damages from the Will County state’s attorney’s office and the U.S. Secret Service, the Secret Service is seeking to be removed from the case in federal court.
Will County Judge Jennifer Lynch ruled Aug. 12 that Jeff Regnier and Greta Keranen, who own Kee Construction and Kee Firearms and Training in New Lenox, were entitled to potential damages after assets seized from them in the course of a criminal investigation were sold.
Regnier and Keranen were found not guilty of fraud charges last year, and their seized property was ordered returned.
Lynch’s ruling stated that recovery of damages would proceed jointly against the Secret Service and against the Will County state’s attorney’s office. A Secret Service agent signed off on the county’s application for a seizure warrant, according to court documents.
Following Lynch’s ruling, the proceedings regarding potential damages were moved from the state court in Will County to the federal court in the Northern District of Illinois, where Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Lisy filed a motion to dismiss the Secret Service from the case.
“The Circuit Court of Will County lacked jurisdiction to order the U.S. Secret Service to pay damages,” Lisy wrote in his motion.
Once the Secret Service is dismissed, the remainder of the case would then be returned to the state court, Lisy said.
In a response filed Monday, attorney Frank Andreano, representing Keranen and Regnier, argued the Secret Service voluntarily submitted itself to state authority by participating in the state investigation and case against the couple.
More Top Picks Hyperfocus In Adhd Superpower Or Trap
“A presumption of regularity supports that (Department of Homeland Security) officials with actual statutory authority dispatched agents to state court in accord with applicable federal regulations,” Andreano said in his response. “Accordingly, the United States cannot now complain about state court authority, action, or remedy.”
Other related criminal charges against Regnier and Keranen are still making their way through state court, and the couple has requested a special prosecutor to take over the remaining criminal proceedings against them, alleging bias on the part of the Will County state’s attorney’s office.
In a separate court proceeding, Regnier and Keranen have also asked for a special prosecutor to investigate the conduct of the Will County state’s attorney’s office in their case.
That matter was set to be heard Tuesday at the Will County Courthouse in Joliet, but following the federal government’s intervention in the forfeiture case, Judge Barbara Petrungaro said she wouldn’t rule on anything until jurisdiction was clarified.
“I shall defer to the federal court,” Petrungaro said. “I’m not getting in trouble.”
Regnier said he believed Will County prosecutors had brought up the federal action in the other state cases he and Keranen are involved in as a stall tactic.
“They don’t want the court to adjudicate the case,” Regnier said, calling it their modus operandi. “And now here we are again.”
Now, it has to be clarified which cases have been moved to federal court and which cases remain in Will County before the couple’s requests for a special prosecutor can move forward, he said.