CHARLESTON – A parent of one of the adopted children at the heart of a high-profile Kanawha County child neglect and human trafficking case has sued the Sissonville couple already convicted of the crimes.
E.R.N, as parent and legal guardian of J.N., filed the complaint October 3 in Kanawha Circuit Court against Donald Lantz and Jeanna Whitefeather.
The couple was convicted January 31 of locking three adopted children inside a closed-off area of a barn on their Sissonville property. Whitefeather was found guilty of 19 counts, including forced labor, civil rights violations, abuse and gross neglect. Lantz was found guilty of 16 counts, including human trafficking, neglect and forced labor. He was found not guilty of four counts of civil rights violations.
In March, Whitefeather was sentenced to the maximum 215 years in prison, and Lantz was sentenced to the maximum 160 years in prison.
“You brought these kids to West Virginia, a place I know as almost heaven, and put them in hell,” Kanawha Circuit Court Judge MaryClaire Akers said during the sentencing hearing. “The court will now put you in yours. May God have mercy on your souls, because this court will not.”
In April, two of the adopted children filed a civil complaint against the couple. And in February, another of the children filed another civil suit against them.
diTrapano
Ben Salango
“We have now filed cases for four of the five children that were abused,” attorneys L. Dante diTrapano and Ben Salango said in a joint statement to The West Virginia Record. “These children have been failed by everyone at every turn in their young lives … first by their parents, then by Child Protective Services.
“We intend to hold all those responsible for the horrific acts of abuse accountable.”
The couple, who are white, were accused of mistreating their adopted Black children by locking them in a shed, forcing them to sleep on the floor and use buckets as toilets and more. The couple was arrested in October 2023 after neighbors saw Lantz lock the oldest girl and her brother in the shed before leaving the property. A Kanawha County Sheriff’s deputy had to use a crowbar to get them out.
“We are going to turn over every stone in every state to make sure these innocent children have compensation for the horrific treatment visited upon them by their foster parents and the authorities in charge of their placement and care,” diTrapano previously said.
According to the newest civil complaint, J.N. was adopted by E.R.N. and her husband last month in Kanawha County. The girl had been adopted by Lantz and Whitefeather in 2017 in Minnesota and moved with them to Washington state in 2019 before moving to West Virginia.
“J.N. experienced shocking and severe physical and emotional abuse and neglect while under the care of the defendants following her adoption until such time as J.N. was removed from defendants’ custody by authorities in West Virginia,” the complaint states. “Defendants would deny J.N. food and/or water for days at a time; defendants would violently strike J.N. if defendants perceived this defenseless child was not listening to them; and defendants would not permit J.N. to sleep inside their house, and instead required J.N. to sleep outside in a tent or in an outbuilding, whether it be snowing, raining, very cold or very hot.”
The complaint says J.N. has suffered severe and permanent physical and emotional injuries and damages.
E.R.N. sues the couple on behalf of the girl for intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence, battery and false imprisonment. She says there have been medical expenses, physical pain and suffering, emotional distress. She says the girl also has been deprived of the enjoyment of life as well as having suffered annoyance, embarrassment, humiliation and inconvenience.
The plaintiffs seek actual damages, consequential damages, exemplary damages, punitive damages, court costs, attorney fees, pre- and post-judgment interests and other relief.
In the criminal complaint against the defendants, deputies said a 9-year-old girl was found alone crying in a loft with no protection from falling, and another child was with Lantz when he eventually returned. Deputies later were led to the couple’s youngest daughter. Deputies said the children were found in dirty clothes and smelling of body odor, deputies said, and the eldest boy was found barefoot with what appeared to be sores on his feet.
During the criminal trial, Kanawha County prosecutors also showed racist text messages they said were from Whitefeather, who denied writing them. The oldest daughter testified the children were cursed at “all the time” and that Whitefeather used racist language.
In the civil case, the plaintiffs are being represented by diTrapano, David H. Carriger and Timothy D. Houston of Calwell Luce diTrapano in Charleston and by Ben Salango of Salango Law in Charleston. The case has been assigned to Circuit Judge Jennifer Bailey.
Kanawha Circuit Court case number 25-C-1176
