Unspeakable acts. A West Virginia couple is accused of child neglect after allegedly forcing their adopted black children to work as “slaves” and locking them in a shed.
Donald Ray Lantz, 63, and Jeanne Kay Whitefeather, 62, pleaded not guilty Tuesday, June 25, in Kanawha County Court to a dozen charges. Charges include human trafficking of minor children, use of minor children in forced labor and neglect of children creating risk of serious bodily injury or causing death. dead, reports Metro News West Virginia.
They also face allegations of human rights violations, specifically targeting black children by forcing them to work because of their race, according to local media. The Kanawha County judge said the five children, ages 16, 14, 11, 9 and 6, were “essentially used as slave labor.”
The couple was first arrested in October 2023 after a welfare check led to the discovery of two of the couple’s five adopted children locked in a shed, in inhumane conditions. According to the mother, the children were not locked up against their will in this dilapidated mini-hangar which she describes as a “clubhouse for teenagers”.
Working on the couple’s farmland
However, inside it, the two teenagers aged 14 and 16 were deprived of running water, food, clean clothes and were forced to sleep on the concrete floor, according to the police report. initial consulted by the Daily Mail. During this surprise visit, a nine-year-old girl was found locked in a loft inside the main house before the father came home with an 11-year-old boy and later the mother returned with a six year old child.
According to court documents, neighbors reported that the children were forced to work on the couple’s farmland and were not allowed into the main house. One of them, Stacy Miller, who called social services, said she saw the children in the yard, “with their heads down and forced to stand in a straight line” to do what she considered to be ” forced manual labor.”
With this dozen new charges, their bail was set at $500,000 each (more than 450,000 euros), compared to $200,000 previously. In prison for several months, the couple will have to appear in court again on September 9.
