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West Virginia to pay $4.4 million to siblings abused by adoptive parents
Five Black siblings whose adoptive parents were sentenced to 215 and 160 years in prison will receive a $4.4 million settlement from West Virginia, which was accused of failing to rescue them despite repeated warnings.
A Kanawha County judge has approved a $4.4 million settlement between West Virginia and five Black siblings who were abused for years by their adoptive parents, Jeanne Kay Whitefeather and Donald Lantz. The siblings’ lawsuit accused the state Department of Human Services of failing to protect them while they lived with the couple.
Under the deal approved by Circuit Judge Maryclaire Akers, the maximum available award will be divided among the five siblings, who were between 6 and 16 years old while living in the home. “The settlement means that these kids will have an opportunity to be children,” their attorney, Dante DiTrapano, said, adding that they had been “robbed of their innocence and robbed of their youth by the monsters that were their former parents.” Some of the siblings reportedly still struggle with post-traumatic stress disorder.
“A ton of calls” and one visit
The lawsuit put the response of Child Protective Services under scrutiny. State records reportedly included notes describing the children as living in “slave-like conditions,” yet the department could not produce documentation showing that CPS ever had meaningful contact with them.
“There were a ton of calls that came in from neighbors, and I think only one visit out there,” DiTrapano said. “There should have been many more.” Evidence from the criminal trial showed that CPS left a card at the home, and when the agency eventually interviewed the children, their adoptive parents were close enough to hear the conversation. State officials later said at least one Department of Human Services employee involved in the case was fired.
DiTrapano said he also plans to pursue claims against Washington state’s child welfare agency, alleging that officials there approved the family’s move to West Virginia despite earlier reports of abuse.
Found locked in a shed
The case came to light in October 2023, when a neighbor reported seeing two teenagers confined in a shed at the family’s home in Sissonville, north of Charleston. Deputies found a 14-year-old boy and a 16-year-old girl inside the structure, which had no electricity or running water. One of them told officers they had been locked inside for about 12 hours since their last meal. The children wore dirty clothes and slept on the concrete floor without mattresses.
At trial, the eldest daughter testified that the children were treated like servants rather than kids and that Whitefeather repeatedly hurled racial slurs at them. The siblings are Black; the couple is white. Prosecutors argued that the couple chose Black children because they believed they would be easier to exploit.
215 and 160 years
In January 2025, a jury convicted the couple of forced labor, human trafficking and child abuse and neglect. Whitefeather was also convicted of civil rights violations based on race, while Lantz was acquitted of the civil rights charges. In March 2025, Akers handed down the maximum sentences: 215 years in prison for Whitefeather, then 63, and 160 years for Lantz, then 64. Lantz’s attorney said his client maintains his innocence.
“You brought these children to West Virginia, a place that I know as ‘Almost Heaven,’ and you put them in hell. The court will now put you in yours. May God have mercy on your souls, because this court will not.” — Judge Maryclaire Akers
The five siblings have since been placed with new families.
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