CHARLESTON – A teenager says a state Child Protective Services worker kidnapped her, raped her and forced her to use illegal drugs.
The girl, identified only as A.R., filed the complaint July 7 in Kanawha Circuit Court against Dustin Kinser, the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources, Bureau for Children and Families, Child Protective Services and Capitol Hotels Inc. doing business as Knights Inn.
“Our 16-year-old client was kidnapped, raped and forced to use drugs by the very state agency that she turned to for help,” A.R.’s attorney L. Dante diTrapano told The West Virginia Record. “The facts of this case are outrageous, and the exploitation of this child is deplorable.”
diTrapano
According to the complaint, A.R. was 16 on July 7, 2018, when Kinser took the girl, who previously had been in CPS custody, from her home in Lincoln County after she notified him of concerns she had about her home life and circumstances.
“Kinser used his position as a child protective services worker with the defendant West Virginia DHHR to identify, groom and unlawfully abduct A.R. from her home,” the complaint states. “Kinser used the authority provided to him by the DHHR to access internal child protective services databases to obtain relevant information on A.R. and her CPS history which he then used to groom and shape his relationship with A.R. and to convince the child to abscond from what she reported to Kinser as a neglectful home and run off with him purportedly for her safety but in actuality to allow Kinser to sexually assault and abuse A.R.”
The complaint says Kinser disguised his true intentions and offered to assist the girl, but it says he failed to make any report or open any official CPS case regarding A.R.
“Despite the complaints that A.R. made to Kinser, he failed to report the same, though he was a mandatory reporter, and instead proceeded to abduct the child and sexually abuse and assault her himself,” the complaint states.
A.R. says Kinser first took her to the Knights Inn hotel in Kanawha City.
“The Knights Inn has a history and pattern of conduct in which they provide low cost rooms that are often used for illegal activity,” the complaint states. “Kinser was able to use illegal drugs, supply alcohol to the minor A.R. and sexually abuse and assault her.”
The complaint says Kinser also took A.R. to several Kanawha County residences where he used illicit drugs, further injured and abused the girl. It says he also took A.R. with him on official CPS business and used illicit drugs, including methamphetamine, while working.
That includes at least one time he smoked meth in a CPS vehicle with A.R. inside the vehicle and another time he conducted a home visit while high on meth with A.R., telling the subject family the girl was a CPS intern.
The nine-count complaint accuses the defendants of violations of the Child Welfare Act, violations of the West Virginia Human Rights Act, infliction of emotional distress, extreme and outrageous conduct, violations of the West Virginia Human Trafficking Statute, violations of the West Virginia State Constitution, negligence, negligent hiring/supervision and vicarious liability.
The DHHR did not return messages seeking comment on the case. Kinser was suspended by the DHHR in July 2018.
Also that month, Kinser was arrested on charges of domestic assault after a dispute with his mother. Days earlier, he had been charged with threatening members of the South Charleston Police Department and charged in a separate incident of contributing to the delinquency of a minor. That minor was A.R.
A.R. seeks compensatory damages for physical and psychological injuries, pain and suffering, mental anguish, emotional distress, medical expenses, loss of future earning capacity, attorney fees, court costs, other expenses, other damages and other relief. She also seeks punitive damages.
The complaint also says A.R. has required or will require secondary and vocational education and training or other levels of higher education, physical examination and treatment, psychiatric and psychological therapy and counseling, medical therapy and counseling, loss or diminishment of earning capacity, loss of ability to enjoy life, impairment of earning capacity and other damages.
She is being represented by diTrapano and Benjamin D. Adams of Calwell Luce diTrapano in Charleston as well as William C. Forbes and W. Jesse Forbes of Forbes Law Offices in Charleston. The case has been assigned to Circuit Judge Tod Kaufman.
Kanawha Circuit Court case number 20-C-571