The owners of a Will County, Illinois gun store are suing county officials and the U.S. Secret Service over what their attorney calls an "ongoing, pervasive and rampant" abuse of the state's civil forfeiture laws. 

Jeffery Regnier and Greta Keranen operate Kee Firearms and Training in New Lenox, Illinois, and are facing dozens of felony counts of fraud and theft related to their business. The couple maintain their innocence, and attorney Michael Ettinger has accused prosecutors of slow-walking the case.

Their attorneys said the case has been repeatedly delayed, and Will County Judge David Carlson expressed frustration in December 2023 when prosecutors submitted records nearly 10 months after the charges were filed.

“They do not want to try this case,” Ettinger said. “They can’t win it. They’re dead in the water.”

The Will County state’s attorney’s office did not return numerous Daily Southtown requests for an interview.

While the criminal proceedings have dragged on, the couple says Will County officials and U.S. Secret Service Agent Cayla Coleman were quick to improperly seize millions of dollars in assets from Regnier and Keranen.

The lawsuit alleges Coleman filed a knowingly false affidavit with the goal of achieving a search warrant that led to the seizure of four vehicles and Fidelity Investment accounts valued at $5.5 million.

The couple argues their Fourth Amendment rights were violated when law enforcement seized four vehicles not listed on the seizure warrant, which was shared with the Daily Southtown, and only lists the three Fidelity accounts and a Chase Bank account.

They also claim their 14th Amendment rights were violated because a probable cause hearing was not held after the seizure. 

Their attorney, Oliver Soleiman, said the state statute is “convoluted,” explaining law enforcement must notify the state’s attorney within 60 days but also seek a probable cause determination from the court within 28 days.

“How can you have a probable cause hearing 28 days from the seizure of the property when they have 60 days?” Soleiman said.

Now, I don't know anything about the gun shop owners, so I have no idea whether the accusations against them have any merit. Their accusations of widespread abuse of the state's civil forfeiture program, however, do seem to be backed up by some evidence. 

Regnier and Keranen’s lawsuit argues the affidavit also violates their Eighth Amendment rights, which protects people from excessive fines or bail, by taking the vehicles and fidelity accounts valued at more than $5.5 million. They argue probable cause could not reasonably apply to more than $274,000 based on the contents of the affidavit, the lawsuit states.

The Supreme Court ruled back in 2019 that the Eighth Amendment protects citizens from unduly excessive fines levied by state and local governments in addition to the protections it affords against federal overreach. In that case, SCOTUS ruled that the seizure of a $42,000 car from a man who pled guilty to selling heroin was a violation of the Eighth Amendment, given that the criminal penalty only came with the potentional for a $10,000 fine. 

If seizing $42,000 in assets when a crime is punishable by $10,000 is excessive, it seems to me that the gun shop owners have a pretty strong argument, that the government abused their Eighth Amendment rights by seizing millions of dollars in assets when they've been accused (not convicted, mind you) of fraudulently obtaining $274,000. 

The lawsuit alleges the Will County state’s attorney’s office worked in conjunction with the Secret Service and the Will County sheriff’s office to bring “knowingly frivolous civil forfeiture claims targeting citizens of Will County to line the pockets of the Will County State’s attorney and other Illinois government agencies.”

Under Illinois law, 65% of forfeiture proceeds go to the arresting agency, which in this case is either Will County sheriff or U.S. Secret Service, 12.5% goes to the state’s attorney, 12.5% to the state appellate prosecutor and 10% to Illinois State Police.

In other words, there's an incentive for law enforcement to abuse the civil forfeiture laws, if only to pad the budgets of law enforcement agencies. Regnier and Keranen's attorneys say the problem is especially acute in Will County, with more than 100 new civil asset forfeitures taking place every month. And they aren't the only ones who say Will County is abusing the law. 

Joliet attorney Frank Andreano is challenging forfeiture law’s constitutionality under claims that Will County prosecutors are profiting from seized property belonging to people who haven’t committed any crimes.

Andreano’s case involves 84-year-old Almeda Cain of Richton Park, who owns a 2014 Mazda SUV. Her car was seized after Cain allowed her daughter, who, unknown to Cain had her driving privileges revoked because of a past conviction for driving under the influence, to use her car to pick up medication, court records show.

“Civil forfeiture was supposed to be for people like Pablo Escobar,” said Soleiman, representing Regnier and Keranen. “It’s not meant to take someone’s grandma’s car because their dumb son or grandson got drunk behind the wheel. It wasn’t meant to be weaponized in this way against citizens.”

Gun store owners may make for an inviting target, especially in a state like Illinois where lawmakers are so hostile to our Second Amendment rights, but that doesn't give the government carte blanche to sieze their assets first and try to prove a crime later. We'll be following both the criminal case against the gun shop owners and their federal lawsuit against Will County officials and the U.S. Secret Service, and should have some new developments to report soon.