Abused Kids To Share $4.4 Million From W.Va.

Five children – who were abused despite multiple calls to Child Protective Services – will share a $4.4 million settlement announced in Kanawha County Circuit Court this week.  

Their adoptive parents, Jeanne Kay Whitefeather and her husband, Donald Lantz, were sentenced to decades in prison last year, after testimony about the brutal conditions the kids endured at their Sissonville home – including being locked in a wooden shed with limited food and no bathroom, and being forced to stand in the rain or perform hard labor. 

“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,” attorney Dante DiTrapano said. “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.”   

By contrast, he said, Tuesday’s “joyful” hearing finalized a mediation agreement between the plaintiffs and the state of West Virgina, before Circuit Judge Maryclaire Akers.  

“These children are finally getting compensation and will be able to have the wherewithal to be a child and do things that are consistent with what most children do, as opposed to being locked in a room out in Sissonville and being basically used as slaves,” he said. 

DiTrapano said before the family moved to West Virginia problems were evident in Washington State -- where the state doesn’t cap awards in a case like this.  

“The equivalent of DHHR out there is going to be sued because they had information before the kids were ever given the transfer here to West Virginia that there was abuse and stuff going on and they did nothing to stop it,” DiTrapano said. 

He’s already made plans to file a new suit there before the end of this year. 

“So a jury will be able to hear this kind of devastating damage that’s been cast upon all these children and award the amount of money that would truly compensate them for all the emotional harm and psychological injury and so forth that they’ve suffered at the hands of these monsters that were their former parents,” DiTrapano said. 

The kids – who haven’t been publicly identified – are now between 8 and 18 years of age, and doing well, DiTrapano said. Three have been adopted together, one is receiving full-time treatment for psychological damage and the oldest is in college.