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Woman's attorney says she didn't urge Gliniewicz suspect manhunt

The attorney for a Vernon Hills woman accused of falsely setting off a manhunt in Volo for men suspected of killing a now-disgraced Fox Lake police officer said authorities should drop the case to "save face."

Attorney Gal Pissetzky filed a motion in Lake County court Tuesday seeking the police case files into the death of Lt. Charles Joseph Gliniewicz. Pissetzky said information in the files directly affects client Kristin B. Kiefer, 31, because Kiefer did not ask the police to escalate her statements into a search for three men initially sought in Gliniewicz's Sept. 1 death.

Pissetzky said Kiefer called the police nonemergency line and told them she was scared, and police chose to escalate the manhunt on their own.

He also said others gave police information that turned out to be wrong and they were never charged.

"The case should be dropped. Lake County should save face by letting this one go," Pissetzky said outside the courtroom. "Why not indict the confidential informants police spoke with who claimed they knew who the killer was? Where's the indictments on those people?"

Kiefer pleaded not guilty to charges of filing a false police report and obstructing justice.

Authorities said Kiefer told police she was traveling north on Route 12 when she had car trouble Sept. 2. She told police two men - one black and one white - approached her stopped car near a cornfield and asked for a ride to Wisconsin.

Her description of the suspects matched descriptions of two of the three men who police believed killed Gliniewicz, authorities said.

Kiefer told police she went back to her car after speaking with them, authorities said, but the black man tried to force open her car door. Kiefer called Fox Lake police from the car and told them the men ran into the cornfield.

Authorities said Kiefer's insistence she was telling the truth resulted in 85 law enforcement officers, two helicopters and several canine units descending on Volo late that night for a search of the cornfield, authorities said.

Officers tested the door handle on Kiefer's car for fingerprints and DNA, then confronted her with the negative results, authorities said. Kiefer eventually admitted to making up the story, they said.

Police said Kiefer told investigators she lied because she wanted attention from the family employing her as a nanny. Authorities said Kiefer chose the Volo location because she was aware of Gliniewicz's death in nearby Fox Lake.

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