Will County prosecutors have defended their handling of cases involving the seizure and forfeiture of property suspected of being involved in criminal activity as an attorney calls for an outside investigation.

The failure of a 2023 case from prosecutors seeking forfeiture of two vehicles belonging to Greta Keranen, 52, and Jeff Regnier, 48, both of Manhattan, has led to requests for special prosecutors in other cases.

Keranen and Regnier are petitioning for a special prosecutor to investigate the forfeiture unit of State’s Attorney Glasgow’s Office and federal agents involved in the vehicle forfeiture case.

The couple also seeks the appointment of a special prosecutor in a 2023 felony fraud case against them based on allegations of prosecutorial misconduct.

In a March 27 court filing, Assistant State’s Attorney Colleen Griffin said prosecutors’ salaries are fixed and there is “no personal incentive to prosecute.”

Griffin said prosecutors do not “personally profit from vigorous enforcement of the forfeiture laws,” she said.

“The Will County State’s Attorney’s Office always follows the law and never decides a forfeiture matter based on the value of the assets. The motivation is to combat and address criminal activity,” Griffin said.

Griffin said law enforcement officers seize property, not prosecutors.

She said prosecutors make court filings after the property is seized and a judge reviews the seizure for probable cause before the case moves forward. She said prosecutors do not “make decisions on what to seize.”

No ruling has been made yet on the motions for special prosecutor filed in the felony fraud case by Ted Hammel and Dan Walsh, attorneys for Keranen and Regnier respectively.

Griffin argues the attorneys have not established an actual conflict of interest.

Last November, Keranen and Regnier were acquitted of a second fraud case. They also won against a related 2023 forfeiture case involving two vehicles that were seized from them in a federal investigation.

In a Jan. 20 ruling, Judge Brian Barrett dismissed that forfeiture case after finding no evidence to support the allegation the couple obtained the vehicles through felony loan fraud.

Barrett said he was disturbed by the “authoritarianism” that was “displayed by the government” in the forfeiture case, which he said was done to “punish the citizens.”

Griffin said Barrett’s statements were “not findings of fact or conclusions of law but instead are personal opinions of the court.”

“These statements also run afoul of the law, which allows for forfeiture of proceeds which are involved in the criminal matter,” Griffin said.

Forfeiture practices under Glasgow have come under fire in recent years by several attorneys, including Frank Andreano, who represented Keranen and Regnier in the 2023 forfeiture case.

In 2024, Andreano raised a constitutional challenge to forfeiture law in Illinois after prosecutors filed a case seeking forfeiture of an 84-year-old woman’s 2014 vehicle.

The woman had allowed her daughter to drive the vehicle and she was not aware her daughter’s driving privileges had been revoked, Andreano said.

“[Civil asset forfeiture] and the large sums of money it generates has, in effect, turned prosecutors into high volume debt collection attorneys – concerned only with the amount of funds collected and property seized,” Andreano said in a 2024 court filing.

On Feb. 26, Andreano filed a petition requesting a special prosecutor investigate the actions of Glasgow’s forfeiture unit and federal agents following the dismissal of the 2023 forfeiture case against Keranen and Regnier.

The petition claims the forfeiture unit and federal agents “conspired to wrongfully and maliciously pursue” the couple.

A judge has not yet ruled on the petition. On Tuesday, Andreano motioned for a default judgment based on the lack of response from Glasgow’s office.

Hammel’s motion alleged Glasgow’s prosecutors teach other prosecutors in a PowerPoint presentation how to identify “high value targets” and how to evade state privacy laws and protections.

In response, Griffin’s court filing said this “baseless allegation” comes from a single page of a presentation that is “completely taken out of context.”

“There is no continuing legal education program on how to circumvent the law to pursue a forfeiture case,” Griffin said.

Forfeiture issues in Will County have received wider news coverage in Chicago in the past year. The Chicago Sun-Times published a story on March 13 about the bid from Keranen and Regnier for an outside investigation of the county’s forfeiture practices.

Hammel’s motion said there are “scores of newspaper articles” that reinforce the fact the “public is well aware of the tactics” of Glasgow’s office.

In response, Griffin’s court filing said their office would note that “what the newspaper decides to put in their paper, to sell that paper, is neither actual facts nor judicial determinations.”