A White Couple is Charged With Forcing Adopted Black Children to Work as “Slaves,” According to the Judge
Several news outlets have cited court papers that say a White couple from West Virginia is accused of locking their adopted Black children in a barn on their property and making them work. The couple is said to have done this out of racism.
Donald Ray Lantz, 63, and Jeanne Kay Whitefeather, 62, were arrested in October 2023 and now face new charges, such as trafficking a minor child for sexual exploitation, using a minor child for forced labor, and child neglect putting the child at a high risk of serious injury or death, according to West Virginia MetroNews.
This news source says that the couple pleaded not guilty in Kanawha County on Tuesday, June 25. People couldn’t right away find the couple’s lawyers.
WCHS-TV got court papers that show Lantz and Whitefeather were arrested after a neighbor called Child Protective Services to say that the couple’s home in Sissonville had two teens locked in a shed. According to the papers, other neighbors also said the kids were “forced to work on the farm and were not allowed inside the house.”
According to an indictment cited by West Virginia MetroNews, when officers arrived at the scene, they said they saw terrible conditions and that the two children were locked in the shed with only a portable toilet and no running water. The children also told police that they had been locked in a room with no doors or windows for about 12 hours and had to sleep on the floor.
The news source said that officers said they found a 9-year-old girl while searching the house. In the end, Lantz showed up at the house with a boy who was 11 years old. West Virginia MetroNews cites an accusation that says the investigation also led police to a 6-year-old girl who had been with people the couple knew from church.
The West Virginia Metro News reports that Kanawha County Circuit Judge Maryclaire Akers used the indictment from prosecutors to say that the couple also broke the human rights of their five adopted children by making them work. It is important to note that all of the children were Black.
According to the news source, the judge said that these children were violated human rights because they were picked on because of their race and were treated like slaves, along with other charges.
The couple is out on bond right now, and their next court date is set for September 9, according to West Virginia News.
Source: PEOPLE