West Virginia COUPLE CHARGED With HUMAN TRAFFICKING and CHILD MALTREATMENT in Adoption Scandal
A West Virginia couple has been charged with human trafficking, child maltreatment, forced labor, and other offenses after allegedly adopting five Black children from a shelter to work as forced laborers and live in horrific conditions. According to the 16-count indictment, Jeanne Whitefeather, 62, and Donald Lantz, 63, are accused of adopting the children, ages 6 to 16, from a shelter for homeless and vulnerable kids, to subject them to forced labor based on race.
The indictment alleges human trafficking, human rights abuses, and the use of forced labor, according to Kanawha County Circuit Judge Maryclaire Akers. “Human rights violations specific to the fact that these children were targeted because of their race and they were used basically as slaves from what the indictment alleges.”
According to jail records, Whitefeather and Lantz are being held at Kanawha County’s South Central Regional Jail on a $500,000 bail. Both pled not guilty this month. Whitefeather’s lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment. According to court officials, Lantz is defending himself. He could not be reached for comment.
According to Kanawha County sheriff’s deputies, the children were discovered during a welfare check at the couple’s Sissonville residence in October. They claimed they pushed their way into a barn on the property and found two youngsters in a small room.
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“The children had no means to exit the barn on their own, no running water, no bathroom facilities, and were deprived of adequate hygienic care and food,” the sheriff’s department stated at the time. According to the report, they discovered a “small child” confined inside the main home alone.
According to the indictment, the two minors in the barn, ages 14 and 16, claimed to have been kept inside for nearly 12 hours and made to sleep on the bare concrete floor. Court filings stated that the children were filthy and had a strong body odor, with the 14-year-old having “open sores on his bare feet.”
“Neighbors also reported that the children were forced to perform farm labor and were not permitted inside the residence,” West Virginia Metro News reported, citing the petition.
According to The Associated Press, Whitefeather’s attorney, Mark Plants, stated during the court that a key was found inside the shed where the minors were discovered and that there was “just a plain and simple misunderstanding about what is going on here.”
Lantz returned home hours later with an 11-year-old boy and led deputies to a 6-year-old girl who was living with the couple’s friends, according to WCHS-TV in Charleston.
The couple is suspected of assaulting the children at their 80-acre ranch in Washington state before moving to West Virginia after realizing they were being investigated.
The pair first paid a total of $400,000 bail, but a court ruled this month that the money was insufficient and upped their bonds to $500,000 apiece. Prosecutors suspect the couple paid the initial bond with proceeds from human trafficking at their Washington and West Virginia residences, which they have subsequently sold.
“We believe the family lived in those two homes while they committed the atrocities. “That changed the residences from property to contraband,” Kanawha County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Christopher Krivonyak told NBC News.
“We said, ‘Judge, we want you to hold on to the money until we can litigate the claims. If we are correct, that money should go to the children.