Adopted Black youngsters to testify in opposition to white dad and mom accused of treating them as ‘slaves’, trial informed

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A West Virginia couple accused of treating their adopted Black children as “slaves” are on trial this week to face charges of child abuse and human trafficking.

Donald Lantz and Jeanne Whitefeather, who are both white, were arrested after two of their five children were found locked up in a shed outside their Sissonville home, near Charleston, in October 2023.

Opening statements began Tuesday in Kanawha County with Kanawha County Assistant Prosecutor Madison Tuck telling the court that soon after the family moved from Washington to West Virginia in April 2023, their neighbors grew concerned about the children.

Tuck said the neighbors will testify about the alleged abuse they claimed to have witnessed at the family’s home, which included seeing the children being forced to work on the property, stand for long periods of time and even using a portable toilet in the yard – all of which was reported to Child Protective Services (CPS).

One neighbor’s claims of seeing two children being locked in a shed by Lantz is what prompted the 911 call in October 2023.

Deputies forced their way into a shed to find a teenage boy and girl inside who had been deprived of adequate food and hygienic care, and the room had no running water or bathroom facilities, according to a criminal complaint.

Inside the main house, a 9-year-old girl was found alone crying in a loft about 15 feet high with no protection from falling. No adults were at the home at the time.

Lantz and Whitefeather were later arrested and arraigned on 16 counts each accusing them of civil rights violations, human trafficking, forced labor, gross child neglect and falsifying an application seeking a public defender. All but one of the counts are felonies.

The indictment alleges the two forced, threatened and interfered with “the free exercise and enjoyment of any right and privilege” of the four children.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen an indictment like this in all of my time,” Thirteenth Judicial Circuit Judge Maryclaire Akers said at the time, adding that the indictment alleges the children were “targeted because of their race” to be used “as basically slaves.”

Both Lantz and Whitefeather appeared in court on Tuesday where opening statements were delivered and testimony from one of the neighbors got underway by the midday break.

Prosecutors told the court in openings that three of the couple’s children will testify over the course of the trial, which is expected to last two weeks.

The children will talk about their living conditions at home, being pepper sprayed, having to constantly stand with their hands over their head, being called racial slurs, and more, he said.

According to a criminal complaint, Deputy H.K. Burdette said the children in the shed were in dirty clothes and smelled of body odor, and the boy was barefoot and had what appeared to be sores on his feet. He said the girl told him that she and her brother were not allowed inside the house and were “locked in the shed for long periods of time daily.”

A fourth child, who Tuck alleges was treated the worst of all the kids, is currently receiving care for mental illness and will not be testifying at the trial.

Financial records will show that “while the couple had more than enough resources to care for these children, they simply chose not to do so,” Tuck said.

The couple’s defense attorney, Mark Plants, began his opening statements by telling the court that the case is about adoptive parents struggling to deal with their children’s past trauma, especially the little boy suffering from severe mental illness.

Plants said the court will provide evidence that the family did not intend to harm the child, but that they were “protecting the family” from him. He added that Whitefeather and Lantz loved the child but “wanted him in an institution, not at home.”

In November 2022, CPS investigated the couple for isolating the boy in a bedroom while they were still in Washington, Plants said. But he noted that CPS said the allegations were unfounded and no criminal charges were filed. The family then moved to Sissonville.

But once they were in the three-bedroom house, the family “knew immediately they needed more space for the kids and animals and the Sissonville house wasn’t going to work,” Plants said, adding that the “tact room” was used as a “classroom and teenage hangout” spot. Prosecutors have referred to the “tact room” as a shed that was locked.

Plants argued that the door wasn’t initially locked, so the kids could come and go as they wanted, then later said that a lock was installed to prevent the teenage boy from running away.

Meanwhile the prosecutor told the court they will hear from the teenage girl who will testify that they were all fed mostly peanut butter sandwiches and water with nearly every meal and denied the opportunity to shower.

“She will testify to mental and emotional abuse experienced by the four older children, including the manipulation that the defendants employed to get them to turn against each other and the use of racially derogatory remarks that the couple made to the children,” Tuck said.

Following opening statements, witness testimony began on Tuesday afternoon with Brenda Bailey, a neighbor who lived directly across the street from the family.

Video clips she had taken of the children working in the yard, hauling buckets, standing out in the rain, and using the port-a-potty, were shown in court.

“It was almost like they didn’t talk at all among themselves,” she said. “They never played. You’d never see them out unless they [were] working or doing something.”

She also testified that she had seen the teens being locked up in the “shop.”

“I was afraid that they would move away and those little kids, nobody would be there to help them,” she told the court. “I wanted to make sure, I just prayed to God that he would give me some sign to get the police back there to get them before they left.”

Source: independent.co.uk