CHARLESTON – A civil lawsuit filed by a teenager claiming a state Child Protective Services worker kidnapped her, raped her and forced her to use illegal drugs has been amended to include an affidavit from another CPS worker corroborating many details in the complaint.
The girl, identified only as A.R., originally filed the complaint July 7, 2020, 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.
It was refiled because of filing errors, and the affidavit was added to the amended complaint.
diTrapano
“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 at the time of the original filing. “The facts of this case are outrageous, and the exploitation of this child is deplorable.”
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.
The affidavit now included in the complaint is from Debora Pigman, who has worked in CPS in three states for 28 years.
“It was common knowledge in the Kanawha County CPS office that Dustin Kinser was on drugs,” Pigman says in her sworn affidavit. “There was always suspicion that he was using drugs prior to the time he was fired and during the time he was a worker in the office. Mr. Kinser had what appeared to be meth sores on his face at times during his employment with CPS, and he displayed erratic behavior.
“People in the office including his supervisors knew this, but they allowed him to continue working with children anyway. I would see him during my employment and there was general office gossip about him, his suspected drug use and inappropriate behavior. I don’t understand why nothing was done before he took that minor child.”
Pigman also says the incident highlights longstanding issues with DHHR background checks and drug screens for CPS workers.
“In the interview process, they do not discuss any drug use or prior drug use,” she testifies. “They do not ask about criminal background. I would think in this job, knowing this job, and doing this job since 1994, it would be important to find out as much about potential employees as you can. We have all seen what happens when you have bad workers and you hire people because you are desperate to hire somebody.
“I think it is important to find out as much as you can. We are dealing with children. We are dealing with people’s lives. …
“CPS workers are the ones that are supposed to be trying to keep kids safe from homes with drug using parents, but there are CPS workers doing the same thing, and that is wrong.”
Pigman says there have been other CPS workers who have been found to be using drugs but were allowed to continue working. She also says CPS training that includes information about predators and how they groom children “could be very dangerous in the wrong hands.”
“Mr Kinser went through this training,” Pigman says. “The training used to be for six months, and now it is three months. Mr. Kinser worked as a CPS worker for approximately a year, and other workers talked to supervisors about their concerns with Mr. Kinser. But nothing was done.
“Mr. Kinser had access as a worker to the CPS computer system that contains information about children in the system and could look up details of these children.”
DiTrapano declined further comment on the affidavit or amended complaint.
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 Kenneth Ballard.
Kinser is being represented by Geoffrey Cullop and Kelly Pawlowski of Pullin Fowler Flanagan Brown & Poe in Charleston. The DHHR is being represented by Jan Fox and Mark Dean of Steptoe & Johnson in Charleston. Knights Inn is being represented by Natalie Schaefer and Caleb David of Shuman McCuskey Slicer in Charleston.
Kanawha Circuit Court case number 20-C-571