Five Black children who were subjected to slave-like conditions by their white adoptive parents have been awarded a $4.4 million settlement from the state of West Virginia. The payout, the maximum the state can legally disburse, is for the state's failure to rescue the children from their abusive adoptive parents, Jeanne Kay Whitefeather and Donald Lantz.
Whitefeather and Lantz were previously sentenced to a combined 375 years in prison for enslaving the children, who ranged in age from 6 to 16 at the time of their abuse. The couple forced the siblings to work as farmhands on their Sissonville property due to their race, subjecting them to horrific living conditions. Some of the children have been diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder as a result of the abuse.
The settlement was approved by Kanawha County Circuit Judge Maryclaire Akers. "This means that these kids will have an opportunity to be children," said attorney Dante diTrapano, who represented the children. "They were robbed of their innocence and robbed of their youth by the monsters that were their former parents."
The lawsuit was filed against West Virginia’s Department of Human Services, alleging that Child Protective Services (CPS) failed to intervene despite multiple calls from neighbors. According to West Virginia Watch, the agency had records indicating slave-like conditions but could not produce documentation of making contact with the children. DiTrapano stated that only one visit was made to the property despite numerous reports.
During the trial of Whitefeather and Lantz, it emerged that CPS left a card at the family's home and later conducted an interview with the children while their adoptive parents were present and within earshot. State officials confirmed that at least one Department of Human Services employee involved in the case was terminated.
DiTrapano criticized the state's child welfare system, calling it "broken" and emphasizing the need for improvements in how employees handle calls, conduct interviews, and document cases. "The quality of the employees that they’re having to go out here and look after the welfare of these children, some of the manner in which they do these interviews and document things, they have to take these calls seriously,” he told West Virginia Watch.
Authorities discovered the deplorable conditions after a neighbor reported that two teenagers were confined to a shed. Police found the eldest siblings, a 14-year-old boy and a 16-year-old girl, locked inside the shed, which lacked running water and electricity. The teenagers reported being forced to sleep on the concrete floor without mattresses and being locked in the barn for up to 12 hours without meals.
Following their adoptive parents' arrest, the children were placed with new families. DiTrapano also indicated plans to pursue charges against the Washington state Human Services Department, citing prior reports of child abuse that preceded Whitefeather and Lantz's relocation with the children to West Virginia.