CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A woman and her husband, both facing serious allegations of exploiting their adopted children through strenuous agricultural labor, have denied restricting two of the children to a shed, despite police reports indicating otherwise. Testimonies during their ongoing trial have garnered significant media attention.
Jeanne Kay Whitefeather appeared in court as the proceedings entered their second week. She and her partner, Donald Ray Lantz, are being charged with mistreatment of four of their five children, who are all Black, while they themselves are white. They face numerous felony charges, including forced labor, civil rights infringements, human trafficking, and severe child neglect.
The couple’s arrests occurred in October 2023 after neighbors notified law enforcement about witnessing Lantz allegedly confine his eldest daughter and her teenage brother inside a locked shed before departing from their Sissonville property. Whitefeather referred to the shed as a “teenager hangout” during her testimony.
During her testimony, Whitefeather insisted that the children were not confined against their will. “They weren’t locked in,” she stated, adding that the children had a key and could come and go whenever they wished. However, the eldest daughter, now 18, testified recently that she was unaware of a key’s existence, which a detective had previously claimed was discovered hidden atop a cabinet in the shed.
The eldest daughter also mentioned that the children were primarily fed peanut butter sandwiches at designated times, with no permission to eat outside of those times, regardless of their hunger. In contrast, Whitefeather contended that the children were permitted to access the refrigerator, asserting that she prepared meals each evening.
Following their arrest, all five children were taken into protective custody by Child Protective Services. The couple had adopted the five siblings while residing in Minnesota. They relocated to Washington state in 2018 and eventually moved to West Virginia in 2023, when the ages of the children ranged from 5 to 16 years old. The oldest boy is currently receiving comprehensive care in a psychiatric facility.
