A West Virginia couple has been charged with forcing their adopted black children a boy and a girl into slave labour and making them live in inhumane conditions.
Donald Ray Lantz, 63, and Jeanne Kay Whitefeather, 62, pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to multiple charges, including human trafficking of a minor child, use of a minor child in forced labour, and child neglect creating a substantial risk of serious bodily injury or death.
Whitefeather said the barn where the girl, 16, and boy, 14, were found is a ‘teenage clubhouse,’ and they are not held against their will.
Authorities discovered the couple’s five adopted children, aged 6 to 16, locked in a dilapidated shed on their Sissonville property during a wellness check. The children, are in poor conditions without lights, food, or running water. They were forced to work on the farm, the report said.
Judge Maryclaire Akers, who increased the couple’s bond to $500,000 each, emphasised the racial targeting of the children, describing the allegations as severe human rights violations. “This case is the first of its kind that she has seen in her career – and that the couple’s original bond of $200,000 was insufficient compared to the severity of their crimes.
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‘Along with human trafficking and neglect was a serious risk of bodily injuries or death, I don’t find the bond to be sufficient,’ Akers said. ‘It alleges human trafficking, human rights violations, the use of forced labour.’
The case, which Judge Akers described as unprecedented in her career, will see the couple back in court on September 9
