Five adopted Black siblings will receive $4.4 million from West Virginia over claims that Child Protective Services failed them, in a case that sent their White adoptive parents to prison for up to a combined 375 years.
Jeanne Kay Whitefeather and her husband, Donald Lantz, were sentenced to decades in prison last year, after a case that revealed the inhumane conditions that the children suffered at the couple’s home in Sissonville.
Allegations included the children being forced to stand in the rain, being locked in a wooden shed, performing hard labor, having very little food, and other hardships.
Kanawha County Circuit Judge Maryclaire Akers, who approved the settlement on Sept. 29, imposed the maximum sentences in March 2025—up to 215 years for Jeanne Whitefeather and up to 160 years for Donald Lantz.
The couple filed appeals that May. The state Supreme Court dismissed both on Oct. 31, 2025, after a final deadline to perfect them passed, WCHS-TV reported.
“As a mother of seven, this one hurt me,” Houston attorney Sadiyah Karriem told The Final Call. “Those babies were not ‘adopted;’ they were taken in to work and exploited.”
West Virginia Watch reported that the state’s Board of Risk and Insurance Management paid the maximum settlement each child could receive under its limits. Attorney Dante DiTrapano represented the siblings.
The case began Oct. 2, 2023, after a 911 call about children locked in a barn. Deputies forced their way into the barn, where a 16-year-old girl and her 14-year-old brother were locked in a room. The girl said they had been there about 12 hours that day.
The sheriff’s office said it had “no running water, no bathroom facilities.” The office said deputies also found a small child locked inside the main home, alone in an unprotected loft.
Judge Akers said in 2024 that the indictment alleged the children were used essentially as slaves.
On Jan. 29, 2025, a jury convicted Ms. Whitefeather on all 19 counts and Mr. Lantz on 12 of 16, including forced labor, human trafficking, and child abuse and neglect. Ms. Whitefeather was also convicted of racebased civil rights violations; Mr. Lantz was acquitted on those counts. Four of the five children were victims in the criminal case; the youngest was not.
“I have defended people for 24 years and I believe in due process, but this jury got it right and so did the judge this time,” Atty. Karriem said.
CPS (Child Protective Services) was re-portedly notified several times about concerns about the children. WCHS-TV reported that a CPS worker testified at trial that she left a card in May 2023, then visited the home on May 27 and spoke with the children on the porch.
She said no follow-up occurred and the assigned worker was fired. The oldest girl said she did not tell the truth about the abuse and conditions because she felt Mr. Lantz could hear what she told the CPS worker.
According to West Virginia Watch, records show CPS received another report in August 2023, and that in November the state said it had no travel records showing workers checked on the children.
Atty. DiTrapano told West Virginia Watch that neighbors called many times, but he believes the agency made only one visit.
“The CPS folks who went out there let an interview take place in the presence of the parents, where the kids were not able to tell the truth about what was going on,” Atty. DiTrapano said,” according to reporting by West Virginia Public Broadcasting.
“CPS left, they didn’t do anything, and the kids suffered more for a while until the police finally came out there and arrested the couple,” the attorney said.
In a February 2024 order compelling re-cords in a separate foster care lawsuit, U.S. Magistrate Judge Cheryl Eifert described press allegations about the calls to CPS. “However, CPS failed to respond and perform an adequate investigation,” she wrote.
Lars Dalseide, spokesperson for Gov. Patrick Morrisey, said the department does not comment on specific settlements, according to West Virginia Watch. He said the prior administration fired an employee involved in the case but did not identify the person.
One online headline called the settlement “karma.” Atty. Karriem disagreed. “That $4.4 million is not karma,” she said. “That is West Virginia, the system, admitting it failed those children.”
Reports on the settlement do not say the state admitted liability.
West Virginia Watch also reported that Atty. DiTrapano and the Salango Law Firm plan legal action against Washington state’s child welfare agency, saying it approved the children’s transfer despite earlier abuse re-ports.
Atty. DiTrapano said the siblings have new adoptive families, West Virginia Watch reported. The $4.4 million settlement awarded to the five children will be placed into trusts for their future use.
Atty. Karriem, who grew up in foster care, urges more Black families to adopt Black children. “We cannot keep leaving our children in somebody else’s hands and hoping for the best. If we do not claim them, somebody else will. We must do for self or suffer the consequences, even with our children,” she said.
