Charges Dismissed Against Kees Firearms Owners in New Lenox

After more than two years in court, Will County prosecutors moved Monday to drop several criminal charges, first filed in 2023, against two New Lenox business owners, after a circuit court judge denied their request to reschedule the trial date.

Jeffery Regnier, the owner of Kee Firearms and Training in New Lenox, and Greta Keranen, with Kee Construction, will not face charges of theft by deception, burglary, loan fraud, wire fraud or burglary fraud, unless the state decides to refile the charges.

Laura Byrne, a spokesperson for the Will County state’s attorney’s office requested, refused to comment but in an email said prosecutors sought a continuance to allow for expert analysis of handwriting on original documents, as well as the unavailability of witnesses.

When the motion to continue was denied, the charges were dismissed. Byrne wrote she is unable at this time to say if charges will be refiled.

Regnier and Keranen were first charged with several felonies for fraud and theft of COVID-19 pandemic relief funds in 2023.

The state requested to continue the case, scheduled for a jury trial Monday, on another date due to the absence of several witnesses, including two special agents for the U.S. Secret Service and a former secret service agent now working with the IRS Southeastern District Analysis.

The state said the agents were necessary to the case but were scheduled for field work the week of the trial.

But Judge Amy Bertani-Tomczak said prosecutors had four months to ensure the witnesses presence, as the July court date was set in March, and denied the state’s request. Previous judges in the case expressed frustration with prosecutor delays.

The New Lenox business partners will still face a number of charges in Will County Circuit Court on Sept. 8, including money laundering and filing a fraudulent Illinois sales and use tax return.

“I’m relieved that they dropped the case at this point in time because of the time it’s taken to go almost 30 months to prove that we’re innocent,” Regnier said Monday.

Regnier and Keranen won a case July 16 to recover seized property and securities under the Eighth Amendment’s protection against excessive fines. The properties, including four vehicles and Fidelity Investment accounts valued at $5.5 million, were seized as a part of officials investigation of Regnier and Keranen for money laundering.

Michael Ettinger, an attorney on the case, called the judgement “historic” for how pretrial civil forfeiture is applied in the county. Previously, defendants had to wait 10 months to a year of trial proceedings before they could move to dismiss the forfeiture and get their property back, Ettinger said.

“They had no right to seize that property under the Constitution,” said Ettinger. “Whatever alleged fraud, if it was $200,000, they could seize that amount of money, but you can’t take the rest of their assets just because it’s in the same account.”

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