CHARLESTON – A Mason County man blames the state Department of Health and Human Resources for allowing his biological granddaughters and another girl to live in a home with a registered sex offender.
The plaintiff, identified as David B., filed his complaint October 14 in Kanawha Circuit Court against the DHHR and unknown DHHR supervisors on behalf of the three girls.
"Unfortunately, this case is not an isolated incident," James Barber, one of the attorneys representing the plaintiffs, told The West Virginia Record. "It is another example of just how crucial the job of the DHHR/CPS is in protecting the most vulnerable children in our state and just how tragic the consequences can be when that job is not done and policy and procedure is not followed.
Barber
"Concerned people did the right thing and called CPS in 2015 and again in 2018. Both times, the opportunity to take action to protect these girls from this monster was missed. While he was the abuser, the facts show that the DHHR failed in its duties to protect the girls, and this allowed the abuse to continue for several years."
According to the complaint, his granddaughters J.B. and M.B. were removed from custody of their biological parents and eventually adopted by Michelle Janine Kerns in early 2015. They girls, who were 5 and 3 at the time, lived there with Kerns and her biological daughter S.M., who was 12 at the time.
Soon thereafter, the plaintiff says Kerns allowed boyfriend John Lawson to move into the home. At the time, Lawson was a registered sex offender, having been convicted of raping a 9-year-old female relative in Monroe County. He had served prison time, and the complaint says Kerns knew of Lawson’s status as a sex offender.
On March 23, 2015, the plaintiff says a concerned relative called the Jackson County DHHR office to report Lawson living in the home. During the ensuing investigation, Lawson said he was accused of sexually assaulting his niece in 1988.
“John stated that his niece reported that her ‘uncle did it,’” the complaint states, citing the DHHR investigation. “John stated that at the time she was calling seven other individuals ‘uncle.’”
The DHHR investigator reported that despite concerns with John’s past conviction, “the children are safe because no impending dangers were identified.”
Soon thereafter, the plaintiff says Lawson began sexually abusing all three girls at the home. Kerns and Lawson married in April 2016.
On April 25, 2018, someone called the Jackson County DHHR office again reporting that one of the girls “had told another girl that someone was kissing her private parts.” The complaint says the DHHR investigation another child at school was making sexual statements to the girl.
On July 23, 2020, another call to the Jackson County DHHR office said the oldest girl, who was 17 at the time, had “allegedly been sexually abused in the home by her stepfather for the past six years.”
“John has allegedly had sexual intercourse with (SM) since the child was around 12 in the home,” the complaint states, quoting the DHHR report. “The mother is aware of the alleged sexual abuse and has allegedly allowed it to continue without reporting it to the police.”
DHHR employees visited the home, police were called and Lawson made statements that led to his arrest. He was charged with more than 100 criminal counts of sexual abuse against two of the girls in the home. The oldest, the biological daughter of Kerns, is now an adult and living on her own.
The adopted girls were removed from the home by the DHHR, and the plaintiff later adopted them.
The plaintiff says the defendants failed to properly investigate the allegations from 2015 and 2018 that could have prevented the sexual abuse by Lawson. He accuses the defendants of ordinary and gross negligence, reckless misconduct as well as fraudulent, malicious and oppressive conduct.
David B., on behalf of the three girls, seeks compensatory economic and non-economic damages, court costs, attorney fees and other relief. He also seeks punitive damages against any individual plaintiffs.
He is being represented by Barber of The Law Office of James M. Barber in Charleston as well as by Lonnie Simmons and Robert Bastress of DiPiero Simmons McGinley & Bastress in Charleston.
The case has been assigned to Circuit Judge Jennifer Bailey.
Kanawha Circuit Court case number 21-C-915