Black Lives Matter-Ugliness of Racism.
- Thread starter Ocean Breeze
- Start date
I think if the public would choose a name "Gordon Lightfoot" Square or "Donald Sutherland" Square would be front-runners.
Why ? And will they be erased in the future for some contrived offence ?
Here's hoping enough councillors flip their vote on Sankofa Square decision
Council's 19-2 vote in December based on limited info, false claims
Author of the article:Brian Lilley
Published Jun 26, 2024 • Last updated 5 hours ago • 3 minute read
Yonge-Dundas Square.
The vote by full Toronto council on whether to rename Yonge-Dundas Square to Sankofa Square was put off until Thursday, June 27, 2024.
The vote by full council on whether to rename Yonge-Dundas Square to Sankofa Square was put off until Thursday. Last week, the city’s executive committee voted unanimously to proceed with this historically illiterate decision, but on Wednesday the full council vote was deferred.
The reality is this vote, based on poor research, ignorance and outright lies, is likely to pass, but hopefully a few of the 19 councillors who voted to start this process change sides on Thursday.
Renaming Yonge-Dundas Square was the compromise position that Mayor Olivia Chow agreed to when she backed off renaming all of Dundas St. last December. The costs had grown to more than $13 million, the public was no longer on side and Chow needed an exit strategy.
On Dec. 13, with no public consultation on the new name, Sankofa Square was unveiled by Councillor Chris Moise, who represents the Toronto Centre ward that includes the square. In a late-in-the-day vote, council agreed to Moise’s new name in a 19-2 vote that some are now reconsidering.
The name Sankofa comes from the Twi language of the Akan people of Ghana in Africa and loosely translated means “to go back and get it.” It seems those choosing the name didn’t go back and get the history because the Akan people were deeply involved in the transatlantic slave trade by selling their neighbours, their rivals and others to white slave traders who showed up on what was then called the Gold Coast.
The reason for renaming Yonge-Dundas Square is the false assertion that Henry Dundas, the 18th-century Scottish politician who the street and the square get their names from, helped prolong the slave trade. It’s well documented that Dundas was a committed abolitionist who worked hard to end the slave trade and slavery itself at a time when that was not a popular position.
Dundas has been smeared by people who either have an agenda or don’t understand history or politics. Real historians like Lynn McDonald, a former NDP MP and professor at Toronto Metropolitan University, have said the folks at city hall got the whole story wrong.
So now we are renaming a square named for a man who opposed the slave trade with a word from one of the ethnic groups in Ghana who participated in the slave trade.
Last week at the executive committee, it was stated that even mentioning that the Akan people participated in the slave trade was racist and akin to residential school denialism.
Of course, accusations of racism were flying freely at the executive committee last week. Moise accused Daniel Tate, a resident of Moise’s ward who showed up to oppose the renaming, of being a racist.
Moise made the accusation only after his microphone was turned off and didn’t dispute it when Tate raised the issue. In fact, Moise repeated his accusation on Global News Radio the next morning while speaking with host Greg Brady, who asked him what had happened.
“Well, you know what,” Moise said, “the way he was behaving to me, there was an element of that and I was disgusted by it.”
Moise admitted that he didn’t know Tate and didn’t want to know him, but felt he was a racist. Tate had just finished saying that if the square was going to be renamed and if the issue was to make Black Torontonians feel they have a space, the square could be renamed Herb Carnegie Square.
Carnegie was a Toronto native who helped break the colour barrier in professional hockey in this country. If Tate’s opposition to Sankofa Square was motivated by race, he wouldn’t be likely to offer up the name of a Black man as an alternative to Sankofa.
The renaming of a public square, and a significant one at that, shouldn’t happen based on shoddy research, political agendas or false accusations of racism, but this is where we are in Toronto in 2024.
When this comes to full council on Thursday, let’s hope the majority side with sanity and vote this name change down.
torontosun.com
Council's 19-2 vote in December based on limited info, false claims
Author of the article:Brian Lilley
Published Jun 26, 2024 • Last updated 5 hours ago • 3 minute read
Yonge-Dundas Square.
The vote by full Toronto council on whether to rename Yonge-Dundas Square to Sankofa Square was put off until Thursday, June 27, 2024.
The vote by full council on whether to rename Yonge-Dundas Square to Sankofa Square was put off until Thursday. Last week, the city’s executive committee voted unanimously to proceed with this historically illiterate decision, but on Wednesday the full council vote was deferred.
The reality is this vote, based on poor research, ignorance and outright lies, is likely to pass, but hopefully a few of the 19 councillors who voted to start this process change sides on Thursday.
Renaming Yonge-Dundas Square was the compromise position that Mayor Olivia Chow agreed to when she backed off renaming all of Dundas St. last December. The costs had grown to more than $13 million, the public was no longer on side and Chow needed an exit strategy.
On Dec. 13, with no public consultation on the new name, Sankofa Square was unveiled by Councillor Chris Moise, who represents the Toronto Centre ward that includes the square. In a late-in-the-day vote, council agreed to Moise’s new name in a 19-2 vote that some are now reconsidering.
The name Sankofa comes from the Twi language of the Akan people of Ghana in Africa and loosely translated means “to go back and get it.” It seems those choosing the name didn’t go back and get the history because the Akan people were deeply involved in the transatlantic slave trade by selling their neighbours, their rivals and others to white slave traders who showed up on what was then called the Gold Coast.
The reason for renaming Yonge-Dundas Square is the false assertion that Henry Dundas, the 18th-century Scottish politician who the street and the square get their names from, helped prolong the slave trade. It’s well documented that Dundas was a committed abolitionist who worked hard to end the slave trade and slavery itself at a time when that was not a popular position.
Dundas has been smeared by people who either have an agenda or don’t understand history or politics. Real historians like Lynn McDonald, a former NDP MP and professor at Toronto Metropolitan University, have said the folks at city hall got the whole story wrong.
So now we are renaming a square named for a man who opposed the slave trade with a word from one of the ethnic groups in Ghana who participated in the slave trade.
Last week at the executive committee, it was stated that even mentioning that the Akan people participated in the slave trade was racist and akin to residential school denialism.
Of course, accusations of racism were flying freely at the executive committee last week. Moise accused Daniel Tate, a resident of Moise’s ward who showed up to oppose the renaming, of being a racist.
Moise made the accusation only after his microphone was turned off and didn’t dispute it when Tate raised the issue. In fact, Moise repeated his accusation on Global News Radio the next morning while speaking with host Greg Brady, who asked him what had happened.
“Well, you know what,” Moise said, “the way he was behaving to me, there was an element of that and I was disgusted by it.”
Moise admitted that he didn’t know Tate and didn’t want to know him, but felt he was a racist. Tate had just finished saying that if the square was going to be renamed and if the issue was to make Black Torontonians feel they have a space, the square could be renamed Herb Carnegie Square.
Carnegie was a Toronto native who helped break the colour barrier in professional hockey in this country. If Tate’s opposition to Sankofa Square was motivated by race, he wouldn’t be likely to offer up the name of a Black man as an alternative to Sankofa.
The renaming of a public square, and a significant one at that, shouldn’t happen based on shoddy research, political agendas or false accusations of racism, but this is where we are in Toronto in 2024.
When this comes to full council on Thursday, let’s hope the majority side with sanity and vote this name change down.
LILLEY: Here's hoping enough councillors flip their vote on Sankofa Square decision
The vote by full Toronto council on whether to rename Yonge-Dundas Square to Sankofa Square was put off until Thursday.
Shot in 1.6 seconds: Video raises questions about how trooper avoided charges in Black man’s death
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Russ Bynum And Jim Mustian
Published Jun 25, 2024 • 6 minute read
Georgia-Trooper-Driver Slain
This image from a dashboard-mounted video camera on a Georgia State Patrol cruiser shows Trooper 1st Class Jake Thompson at the scene of an Aug. 7, 2020, shooting in which the trooper killed motorist Julian Lewis in Screven County, Ga. Thompson knocked Lewis' car into a ditch and shot him after trying to pull over the 60-year-old Black man for a broken taillight. Thompson was fired and charged with murder, but walked free after a grand jury declined to indict him. The newly released video raises new questions about the shooting. (Georgia Department of Public Safety/Ebony Reed, Louise Story via AP)
SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Julian Lewis didn’t pull over for the Georgia State Patrol cruiser flashing its blue lights behind him on a rural highway. He still didn’t stop after pointing a hand out the window and turning onto a darkened dirt road as the trooper sounded his siren.
Five minutes into a pursuit that began over a broken taillight, the 60-year-old Black man was dead — shot in the forehead by the white trooper who fired a single bullet mere seconds after forcing Lewis to crash into a ditch. Trooper Jake Thompson insisted he pulled the trigger as Lewis revved the engine of his Nissan Sentra and jerked his steering wheel as if trying to mow him down.
“I had to shoot this man,” Thompson can be heard telling a supervisor on video recorded by his dash-mounted camera at the shooting scene in rural Screven County, midway between Savannah and Augusta. “And I’m just scared.”
But new investigative details obtained by The Associated Press and the never-before-released dashcam video of the August 2020 shooting have raised fresh questions about how the trooper avoided prosecution with nothing more than a signed promise never to work in law enforcement again. Use-of-force experts who reviewed the footage for AP said the shooting appeared to be unjustified.
An investigative file obtained by AP offers the most detailed account yet of the case, including documents that spell out why the Georgia Bureau of Investigation concluded the 27-year-old trooper’s version of events did not match the evidence. For instance, an inspection of Lewis’ car indicated the crash had disconnected the vehicle’s battery and rendered it immobile.
Footage of the pursuit has never been made public. It was first obtained by the authors of a new book about race and economic inequality titled “Fifteen Cents on the Dollar: How Americans Made the Black-White Wealth Gap.” Louise Story and Ebony Reed shared the video with AP, which verified its authenticity and obtained additional documents under Georgia’s open-records law.
The footage does not include visuals of the actual shooting, which happened outside the camera’s view. But it shows the crucial final moments in which Thompson uses a police maneuver to send Lewis’ car spinning into a ditch. Then the trooper’s cruiser stops parallel to Lewis’ vehicle and Thompson’s voice barks, “Hey, get your hands up!” The gunshot rings out before he can finish the warning.
The documents show Thompson fired just 1.6 seconds after his cruiser stopped.
“This guy just came out shooting” and did not give Lewis “remotely sufficient time to respond” to his order, said Andrew Scott, a former Boca Raton, Florida, police chief who wrote a dissertation about police chases.
“This goes beyond a stupid mistake,” added Charles “Joe” Key, a former Baltimore police lieutenant and use-of-force expert who has consulted on thousands of such cases.
Key also took issue with the maneuver to disable Lewis’ vehicle, saying that, too, was unwarranted. And he deemed Thompson’s claim that he fired because of the revving engine “total garbage.”
“I’m not in favor of people running from the police,” Key said. “But it doesn’t put him in the category of people deserving to be shot by the police.”
Thompson was fired and arrested on a murder charge a week after the Aug. 7, 2020, shooting, which came amid a summer of protests in the wake of the police killings of George Floyd and other Black people. The trooper was denied bail and spent more than 100 days in jail.
But in the end, Thompson walked free without a trial. A state grand jury in 2021 declined to bring an indictment. The district attorney overseeing the case closed it last fall, when federal prosecutors also ruled out civil rights charges.
At the same time, the U.S. Justice Department quietly entered into a non-prosecution agreement with Thompson forbidding him from ever working in law enforcement again — a highly unusual deal that brought little solace to Lewis’ family.
“It’s inadequate,” said Lewis’ son, Brook Bacon. “I thought the shortcomings that occurred at the state level would be more thoroughly examined at the federal level, but that’s apparently not the case.”
The state of Georgia in 2022 paid Lewis’ family a $4.8 million settlement to avoid a lawsuit.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for Georgia’s Southern District, which reached the non-prosecution deal with Thompson, declined to discuss it except to say the Justice Department communicated with the Lewis family “consistent with the law and DOJ policy.”
District Attorney Daphne Totten did not respond to requests for comment. Neither Thompson nor his attorney, Keith Barber, would discuss the case.
Because Georgia law doesn’t require troopers to use body cameras, the dashcam footage is the only video of the shooting.
“It’s a heartbreaking case and sheds light on the complexities and difficulties Black families face when intersecting with the justice system,” said Reed, a former AP journalist and one of the authors who first obtained the footage.
Lewis worked odd jobs as a carpenter and handyman. He helped put a new roof and siding on a local church, relatives said, and repaired plumbing and electrical wiring in people’s homes. He would often charge friends and family only for materials.
“He was just a good, kind-hearted person,” said Tonia Moore, one of Lewis’ sisters. “Everybody has flaws.”
Lewis also struggled with drugs and alcohol. He served prison time for cocaine possession and multiple DUI violations. After the shooting, blood tests found alcohol, cocaine and methamphetamine in his system.
Thompson, who policed Georgia highways for six years before the shooting, was described in a performance evaluation as “hard working and aggressive.” He led his post in DUI arrests, according to his personnel file, and preferred working nights to improve his chances of catching intoxicated drivers.
Days after the shooting, Thompson told GBI investigators he used the tactical maneuver to end the chase — which he estimated reached top speeds of 65 mph (105 kph) — out of concern that the pursuit was approaching a more populated area. He acted right after Lewis’ car rolled without stopping through an intersection with a stop sign.
Thompson said that after getting out of his cruiser beside Lewis’ car in the ditch, he heard the Nissan’s engine “revving up at a high rate of speed.”
“It appeared to me that the violator was trying to use his vehicle to injure me,” Thompson said in an audio recording of the GBI interview obtained by the AP. He said he fired “in fear for my life and safety.”
On the dashcam footage, a brief noise resembling a revving engine can be heard just before Thompson shouts his warning and fires. Less than two minutes later, the trooper can be heard saying: “Jesus Christ! He almost ran over me.”
According to the GBI case file, Thompson fired facing the open driver’s side window of Lewis’ car less than 10 feet (3 meters) away.
Agents at the scene found Lewis’ front tires pointing away from the trooper’s cruiser. They also determined Lewis’ car had no power after the Nissan struck the ditch. Raising the hood, they discovered the battery had tipped onto its side after its mounting broke. One of the battery cables had been pulled loose, and the engine’s air filter housing had come partially open.
Investigators later performed a field test on Lewis’ car in which they connected the battery and started the engine. When an agent disconnected one of the cables from the battery, the car’s engine immediately stopped. Likewise, opening the air filter cover caused the engine to die.
Because grand jury proceedings are generally secret, it’s unknown why the panel declined to indict Thompson in June 2021. Georgia affords law enforcement officers the chance to defend themselves before a grand jury, a privilege not given to any other defendants.
Totten, the district attorney, decided not to try again, saying in a Sept. 28 letter to the GBI that “there has been no new evidence developed in this case.”
For Bacon, Lewis’ son, the lack of charges is an open wound. He worries no one will remember what happened given the passage of almost four years — and the number of others killed by police under questionable circumstances.
“It’s hard for anybody to even reach back that far, especially if they didn’t hear about it initially,” he said. “But these issues haven’t gone away.”
torontosun.com
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Russ Bynum And Jim Mustian
Published Jun 25, 2024 • 6 minute read
Georgia-Trooper-Driver Slain
This image from a dashboard-mounted video camera on a Georgia State Patrol cruiser shows Trooper 1st Class Jake Thompson at the scene of an Aug. 7, 2020, shooting in which the trooper killed motorist Julian Lewis in Screven County, Ga. Thompson knocked Lewis' car into a ditch and shot him after trying to pull over the 60-year-old Black man for a broken taillight. Thompson was fired and charged with murder, but walked free after a grand jury declined to indict him. The newly released video raises new questions about the shooting. (Georgia Department of Public Safety/Ebony Reed, Louise Story via AP)
SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Julian Lewis didn’t pull over for the Georgia State Patrol cruiser flashing its blue lights behind him on a rural highway. He still didn’t stop after pointing a hand out the window and turning onto a darkened dirt road as the trooper sounded his siren.
Five minutes into a pursuit that began over a broken taillight, the 60-year-old Black man was dead — shot in the forehead by the white trooper who fired a single bullet mere seconds after forcing Lewis to crash into a ditch. Trooper Jake Thompson insisted he pulled the trigger as Lewis revved the engine of his Nissan Sentra and jerked his steering wheel as if trying to mow him down.
“I had to shoot this man,” Thompson can be heard telling a supervisor on video recorded by his dash-mounted camera at the shooting scene in rural Screven County, midway between Savannah and Augusta. “And I’m just scared.”
But new investigative details obtained by The Associated Press and the never-before-released dashcam video of the August 2020 shooting have raised fresh questions about how the trooper avoided prosecution with nothing more than a signed promise never to work in law enforcement again. Use-of-force experts who reviewed the footage for AP said the shooting appeared to be unjustified.
An investigative file obtained by AP offers the most detailed account yet of the case, including documents that spell out why the Georgia Bureau of Investigation concluded the 27-year-old trooper’s version of events did not match the evidence. For instance, an inspection of Lewis’ car indicated the crash had disconnected the vehicle’s battery and rendered it immobile.
Footage of the pursuit has never been made public. It was first obtained by the authors of a new book about race and economic inequality titled “Fifteen Cents on the Dollar: How Americans Made the Black-White Wealth Gap.” Louise Story and Ebony Reed shared the video with AP, which verified its authenticity and obtained additional documents under Georgia’s open-records law.
The footage does not include visuals of the actual shooting, which happened outside the camera’s view. But it shows the crucial final moments in which Thompson uses a police maneuver to send Lewis’ car spinning into a ditch. Then the trooper’s cruiser stops parallel to Lewis’ vehicle and Thompson’s voice barks, “Hey, get your hands up!” The gunshot rings out before he can finish the warning.
The documents show Thompson fired just 1.6 seconds after his cruiser stopped.
“This guy just came out shooting” and did not give Lewis “remotely sufficient time to respond” to his order, said Andrew Scott, a former Boca Raton, Florida, police chief who wrote a dissertation about police chases.
“This goes beyond a stupid mistake,” added Charles “Joe” Key, a former Baltimore police lieutenant and use-of-force expert who has consulted on thousands of such cases.
Key also took issue with the maneuver to disable Lewis’ vehicle, saying that, too, was unwarranted. And he deemed Thompson’s claim that he fired because of the revving engine “total garbage.”
“I’m not in favor of people running from the police,” Key said. “But it doesn’t put him in the category of people deserving to be shot by the police.”
Thompson was fired and arrested on a murder charge a week after the Aug. 7, 2020, shooting, which came amid a summer of protests in the wake of the police killings of George Floyd and other Black people. The trooper was denied bail and spent more than 100 days in jail.
But in the end, Thompson walked free without a trial. A state grand jury in 2021 declined to bring an indictment. The district attorney overseeing the case closed it last fall, when federal prosecutors also ruled out civil rights charges.
At the same time, the U.S. Justice Department quietly entered into a non-prosecution agreement with Thompson forbidding him from ever working in law enforcement again — a highly unusual deal that brought little solace to Lewis’ family.
“It’s inadequate,” said Lewis’ son, Brook Bacon. “I thought the shortcomings that occurred at the state level would be more thoroughly examined at the federal level, but that’s apparently not the case.”
The state of Georgia in 2022 paid Lewis’ family a $4.8 million settlement to avoid a lawsuit.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for Georgia’s Southern District, which reached the non-prosecution deal with Thompson, declined to discuss it except to say the Justice Department communicated with the Lewis family “consistent with the law and DOJ policy.”
District Attorney Daphne Totten did not respond to requests for comment. Neither Thompson nor his attorney, Keith Barber, would discuss the case.
Because Georgia law doesn’t require troopers to use body cameras, the dashcam footage is the only video of the shooting.
“It’s a heartbreaking case and sheds light on the complexities and difficulties Black families face when intersecting with the justice system,” said Reed, a former AP journalist and one of the authors who first obtained the footage.
Lewis worked odd jobs as a carpenter and handyman. He helped put a new roof and siding on a local church, relatives said, and repaired plumbing and electrical wiring in people’s homes. He would often charge friends and family only for materials.
“He was just a good, kind-hearted person,” said Tonia Moore, one of Lewis’ sisters. “Everybody has flaws.”
Lewis also struggled with drugs and alcohol. He served prison time for cocaine possession and multiple DUI violations. After the shooting, blood tests found alcohol, cocaine and methamphetamine in his system.
Thompson, who policed Georgia highways for six years before the shooting, was described in a performance evaluation as “hard working and aggressive.” He led his post in DUI arrests, according to his personnel file, and preferred working nights to improve his chances of catching intoxicated drivers.
Days after the shooting, Thompson told GBI investigators he used the tactical maneuver to end the chase — which he estimated reached top speeds of 65 mph (105 kph) — out of concern that the pursuit was approaching a more populated area. He acted right after Lewis’ car rolled without stopping through an intersection with a stop sign.
Thompson said that after getting out of his cruiser beside Lewis’ car in the ditch, he heard the Nissan’s engine “revving up at a high rate of speed.”
“It appeared to me that the violator was trying to use his vehicle to injure me,” Thompson said in an audio recording of the GBI interview obtained by the AP. He said he fired “in fear for my life and safety.”
On the dashcam footage, a brief noise resembling a revving engine can be heard just before Thompson shouts his warning and fires. Less than two minutes later, the trooper can be heard saying: “Jesus Christ! He almost ran over me.”
According to the GBI case file, Thompson fired facing the open driver’s side window of Lewis’ car less than 10 feet (3 meters) away.
Agents at the scene found Lewis’ front tires pointing away from the trooper’s cruiser. They also determined Lewis’ car had no power after the Nissan struck the ditch. Raising the hood, they discovered the battery had tipped onto its side after its mounting broke. One of the battery cables had been pulled loose, and the engine’s air filter housing had come partially open.
Investigators later performed a field test on Lewis’ car in which they connected the battery and started the engine. When an agent disconnected one of the cables from the battery, the car’s engine immediately stopped. Likewise, opening the air filter cover caused the engine to die.
Because grand jury proceedings are generally secret, it’s unknown why the panel declined to indict Thompson in June 2021. Georgia affords law enforcement officers the chance to defend themselves before a grand jury, a privilege not given to any other defendants.
Totten, the district attorney, decided not to try again, saying in a Sept. 28 letter to the GBI that “there has been no new evidence developed in this case.”
For Bacon, Lewis’ son, the lack of charges is an open wound. He worries no one will remember what happened given the passage of almost four years — and the number of others killed by police under questionable circumstances.
“It’s hard for anybody to even reach back that far, especially if they didn’t hear about it initially,” he said. “But these issues haven’t gone away.”
Shot in 1.6 seconds: Video raises questions about how trooper avoided charges in Black man’s death
The state of Georgia in 2022 paid Lewis' family a $4.8 million settlement to avoid a lawsuit.
Indictment alleges West Virginia couple used adopted Black children as 'slaves,' judge says
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
John Raby
Published Jun 26, 2024 • 3 minute read
A couple arrested after some of their adopted children were found locked in a shed at their West Virginia home are set for trial later this year on charges that a judge said involved their use as “slaves.”
Donald Ray Lantz and Jeanne Kay Whitefeather face trial later this year after they were arraigned on 16 counts each accusing them of civil rights violations, human trafficking, forced labor, gross child neglect and falsifying an application seeking a public defender. All but one of the counts are felonies.
Lantz and Whitefeather are white. Four children whose initials are in the indictment are Black.
The indictment said Lantz and Whitefeather forced, threatened and interfered with “the free exercise and enjoyment of any right and privilege” of the four children.
Kanawha County Assistant Prosecutor Madison Tuck said Wednesday that while she couldn’t answer questions about specific details, “I would just say that because the indictment includes a civil rights violation, that there’s definitely a racial element to the case.”
The couple’s trial is set for Sept. 9. They remain held at the South Central Regional Jail.
Circuit Judge MaryClaire Akers expressed shock after a grand jury indicted the couple in May, saying at a June 11 arraignment that “I don’t think I’ve ever seen an indictment like this in all of my time,” according to WCHS-TV.
Akers said the indictment alleged the children’s “use as, basically, slaves.”
Authorities began investigating after they received a call to the home last October in Sissonville, near Charleston, from someone expressing concern about the children’s welfare. Sheriff’s deputies forced their way into a shed next to the home where a teenage boy and girl were locked inside. The children had been deprived of adequate food and hygienic care, and the room had no running water or bathroom facilities, according to a criminal complaint.
Inside the main residence, a 9-year-old girl was found alone crying in a loft about 15 feet (4.6 meters) high with no protection from falling. No adults were present at the home. A fourth child was with Lantz when he eventually returned. Deputies were later led to the couple’s 6-year-old adopted Black daughter who had been with acquaintances from the couple’s church.
The couple was arrested and the children were placed under the care of Child Protective Services.
Akers ruled the bonds for each of the defendants was insufficient and ordered them increased from $200,000 to $500,000 cash only.
Lantz’s attorney, Ed Bullman, said at the June 11 hearing that the charges were full of “square pegs and very round holes.”
Whitefeather’s brother, Mark Hughes of Chesapeake, Ohio, testified during a bond hearing in October that the home in Sissonville was unfurnished because the family was in the process of moving to a larger home in Beckley, according to WCHS-TV. At the hearing, Whitefeather’s attorney, Mark Plants, referred to the shed as a “teenage clubhouse,” said there was a key inside the shed and that there was “just a plain and simple misunderstanding about what is going on here.”
But in a criminal complaint, Deputy H.K. Burdette said he knocked on the shed’s door on Oct. 2 and that the teenage girl inside indicated she was unable to open it. After deputies forced their way in, the girl said the defendants had brought food to her and her brother early that morning and that they had been inside for about 12 hours with no contact from the couple. The girl also said she and her brother were not allowed inside the house and were “locked in the shed for long periods of time daily.”
The children were in dirty clothes and smelled of body odor, and the boy was barefoot and had what appeared to be sores on his feet, Burdette said.
In a court filing, Kanawha County Assistant Prosecutor Chris Krivonyak said the couple had sold an 80-acre ranch for $725,000 in Tonasket, Washington. Whitefeather’s brother posted two $200,000 bonds to secure the defendants’ initial jail release three days later. In March, the couple sold the Sissonville home for $295,000, Krivonyak said.
Separately, a U.S. magistrate judge ruled in February that Child Protective Services failed to adequately investigate what happened with the children, who were left to “suffer at the hands of their adoptive parents for months.” The judge ordered Child Protective Services to provide information in the case as part of an ongoing class-action lawsuit that accuses the state of failing to protect children and fix its overwhelmed foster care system.
— Associated Press writer Leah Willingham contributed to this report.
torontosun.com
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
John Raby
Published Jun 26, 2024 • 3 minute read
A couple arrested after some of their adopted children were found locked in a shed at their West Virginia home are set for trial later this year on charges that a judge said involved their use as “slaves.”
Donald Ray Lantz and Jeanne Kay Whitefeather face trial later this year after they were arraigned on 16 counts each accusing them of civil rights violations, human trafficking, forced labor, gross child neglect and falsifying an application seeking a public defender. All but one of the counts are felonies.
Lantz and Whitefeather are white. Four children whose initials are in the indictment are Black.
The indictment said Lantz and Whitefeather forced, threatened and interfered with “the free exercise and enjoyment of any right and privilege” of the four children.
Kanawha County Assistant Prosecutor Madison Tuck said Wednesday that while she couldn’t answer questions about specific details, “I would just say that because the indictment includes a civil rights violation, that there’s definitely a racial element to the case.”
The couple’s trial is set for Sept. 9. They remain held at the South Central Regional Jail.
Circuit Judge MaryClaire Akers expressed shock after a grand jury indicted the couple in May, saying at a June 11 arraignment that “I don’t think I’ve ever seen an indictment like this in all of my time,” according to WCHS-TV.
Akers said the indictment alleged the children’s “use as, basically, slaves.”
Authorities began investigating after they received a call to the home last October in Sissonville, near Charleston, from someone expressing concern about the children’s welfare. Sheriff’s deputies forced their way into a shed next to the home where a teenage boy and girl were locked inside. The children had been deprived of adequate food and hygienic care, and the room had no running water or bathroom facilities, according to a criminal complaint.
Inside the main residence, a 9-year-old girl was found alone crying in a loft about 15 feet (4.6 meters) high with no protection from falling. No adults were present at the home. A fourth child was with Lantz when he eventually returned. Deputies were later led to the couple’s 6-year-old adopted Black daughter who had been with acquaintances from the couple’s church.
The couple was arrested and the children were placed under the care of Child Protective Services.
Akers ruled the bonds for each of the defendants was insufficient and ordered them increased from $200,000 to $500,000 cash only.
Lantz’s attorney, Ed Bullman, said at the June 11 hearing that the charges were full of “square pegs and very round holes.”
Whitefeather’s brother, Mark Hughes of Chesapeake, Ohio, testified during a bond hearing in October that the home in Sissonville was unfurnished because the family was in the process of moving to a larger home in Beckley, according to WCHS-TV. At the hearing, Whitefeather’s attorney, Mark Plants, referred to the shed as a “teenage clubhouse,” said there was a key inside the shed and that there was “just a plain and simple misunderstanding about what is going on here.”
But in a criminal complaint, Deputy H.K. Burdette said he knocked on the shed’s door on Oct. 2 and that the teenage girl inside indicated she was unable to open it. After deputies forced their way in, the girl said the defendants had brought food to her and her brother early that morning and that they had been inside for about 12 hours with no contact from the couple. The girl also said she and her brother were not allowed inside the house and were “locked in the shed for long periods of time daily.”
The children were in dirty clothes and smelled of body odor, and the boy was barefoot and had what appeared to be sores on his feet, Burdette said.
In a court filing, Kanawha County Assistant Prosecutor Chris Krivonyak said the couple had sold an 80-acre ranch for $725,000 in Tonasket, Washington. Whitefeather’s brother posted two $200,000 bonds to secure the defendants’ initial jail release three days later. In March, the couple sold the Sissonville home for $295,000, Krivonyak said.
Separately, a U.S. magistrate judge ruled in February that Child Protective Services failed to adequately investigate what happened with the children, who were left to “suffer at the hands of their adoptive parents for months.” The judge ordered Child Protective Services to provide information in the case as part of an ongoing class-action lawsuit that accuses the state of failing to protect children and fix its overwhelmed foster care system.
— Associated Press writer Leah Willingham contributed to this report.
Indictment alleges West Virginia couple used adopted Black children as 'slaves,' judge says
A couple arrested after some of their adopted children were found in a shed at their West Virginia home are set for trial later this year.