Five black children who were forced to work as slaves by their wealthy, white adoptive parents have won a $4.4 million settlement from the state of West Virginia for failing to rescue them.
Jeanne Kay Whitefeather and Donald Lantz were sentenced collectively to 375 years in prison for keeping the children, who were siblings between the ages of 6 and 16 at the time, in horrific living conditions on their property in Sissonville, where they made them work as farmhands because of their race.
Kanawha County Circuit Judge Maryclaire Akers last week approved a $4.4 million settlement for the abused children, the maximum amount the state can give out, West Virginia Watch reported.
The settlement “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 hefty payout will be split between the five children, some of whom suffer from posttraumatic stress disorder as a result of the abuse.
The children filed a lawsuit against West Virginia’s Department of Human Services earlier this year accusing CPS of failing to protect them.
The agency was not able to provide documentation showing CPS made contact with the children despite having notation in its system about the slave-like conditions of the children, according to West Virginia Watch.
“There were a ton of calls that came in from neighbors, and I think only one visit out there. There should have been many more,” diTrapano said.
During Whitefeather and Lantz’s trial, it was revealed that CPS left a card at the family’s front door. DiTrapano said CPS later conducted an interview with the children, but they were within earshot of their adopted parents.
At least one Department of Human Services employee who was involved was fired, according to state officials.
DiTrapano claims that West Virginia’s entire child welfare system “is broken.”
“There’s all kinds of things that need to be changed,” he told West Virginia Watch. “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.”
The adopted children were found living in deplorable conditions after a neighbor reported that two teenagers were being kept in a shed.
Police found the eldest siblings, a 14-year-old boy and a 16-year-old girl, locked inside the shed, which had a small RV porta-potty but no lights or running water. One of the teens told police they had been locked in the barn for 12 hours after they were last fed.
The two, who wore dirty clothes and smelled terrible, said the couple forced them to sleep on the concrete floor without any mattresses.
Lars Dalseide, spokesperson for Gov. Patrick Morrisey, said the governor has taken steps to strengthen DPS since taking office.
After their adoptive parents’ arrest, the children were placed with new families. Two of their new adoptive mothers appeared in court and discussed the kids’ new lives, which included a trip to the beach.
DiTrapano said he plans to bring charges against Washington state’s Human Services Department because the agency approved Whitefeather and Lantz moving with the children from Washington, where there were prior reports of child abuse, to West Virginia.