Three former foster children, who are now adults, have filed a civil rights lawsuit against their foster parents, as well as police and other government officials who had a part in removing them from their family home nearly 15 years ago.

The children were eventually adopted by Timothy and Barbara Krause of Houtzdale, who in 2019 were each sentenced by Clearfield County Judge Paul E. Cherry to seven to 40 years in prison.

The Krauses pleaded guilty to charges of criminal conspiracy, endangering the welfare of children, simple assault and terroristic threats that included as victims six children under their care, including the three who are plaintiffs in the lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court in Johnstown.

Barbara Krause, 55, remains incarcerated in the State Correctional Institution at Cambridge Springs.

Timothy Krause died in Somerset Hospital last May.

The lawsuit names Barbara Krause and the estate of Timothy Krause, among others, as defendants.

The children are suing under their adopted names of Matthew, Rebecca and Issac Krause.

Both the first and last names of the children were changed upon adoption, which the lawsuit indicated was part of an overall scheme by law enforcement to make it difficult for members of the biological families to find them.

According to the attorneys for the children, Mart Harris of Pittsburgh and Roy Huntsman of Cedar Hills, Utah, the children were removed from their homes as a way for law enforcement to put pressure on the parents.

The removal was initiated on Oct. 20, 2008.

The lawsuit stated the biological parents never abused their children but contended the children were removed from their homes “with the specific purpose of interfering with the (children’s) familial relations in order to coerce (the parents) as part of a police investigation.”

After removal, a court hearing was held at which “numerous members” of the biological families attempted to attend in an effort to assume responsibility for the children.

But by this point Blair County Children Youth & Services was involved and rather than place the children with family, the court decided to put the children into foster care.

The case was then transferred to Clearfield County, which took custody of the children, allegedly “in order to make it more difficult for the plaintiffs’ biological family members (including the parents) to find and reunite with the children,” the lawsuit stated.

It went on to state Clearfield Children & Youth Services placed the children with “an older white couple,” who had a three-bedroom home in Houtzdale.

The Krauses initially sent the children to public school and allowed them to engage in activities and have friends outside the home.

Eventually the parental rights of the parents were terminated and the Krauses were permitted to adopt the children, according to the lawsuit.

It goes on to state that the Krauses “physically and psychologically” abused the children:

– They used racial slurs in referring to the three children, who are African-American.

– They beat the children.

– They would force the youths to stand against a wall for hours.

– They would allow the children to be bitten by dogs.

– They told the children their parents were dead.

– The three children from Blair County and three other foster children lived in one bedroom.

– They threatened physical punishment for eating food unless it was approved by the adoptive parents.

One of the boys — not among the three who filed the lawsuit — had been injured after his face was pushed into the door of a car by Tim Krause and that injury was observed by a school teacher.

The lawsuit stated Clearfield Children and Youth investigated but no action was taken.

The children were then pulled from the public school in favor of home-schooling, the story continued.

Eventually, the children began running away but were then returned to the Krause home.

In 2018, the Krauses were arrested.

According to the lawsuit, despite the arrest, the children still remained in the foster care system until they became of adult age.

At that point, each of the (children) reunited with their families and “have been welcomed home and receive the love and support from which they had been deprived for the majority of their lives,” the lawsuit concluded.

Both attorneys agree there are many pieces of the story that have yet to be put together because of the sealed nature of child welfare and adoption proceedings, but they stated that the lawsuit had to be filed now in view of the statute of limitations.

Attorneys Huntsman and Harris said they hope to get a better picture of the situation when they enter into the legal process of discovery.

For instance, the lawsuit names Blair County, Clearfield County and their respective child welfare agencies as defendants but does not have the names of the people from those agencies involved in the respective cases.

The Altoona Police Department also is named as a defendant because, allegedly one of their officers (Randy Feathers) initiated the removal of the children from their homes, but in 2008 Feathers no longer worked for APD. He was instead the director of the regional office of the Attorney General’s Bureau of Narcotics Investigations and Control in State College, overseeing drug prosecutions throughout a 15-county area.

Feathers in an email said he could not remember any such case as was described in the lawsuit.

Asked if this was an unusual lawsuit, Huntsman did not think so, noting he has filed such cases while practicing law in Texas and California.

But he explained in cases where children are removed from their families, the primary attention focuses on the parents.

People forget, he explained, that children are also losing their families.

The lawsuit asks unspecified financial damages for violations of the children’s First and Fourteenth Amendment rights – interference with familial associations.

It also charges a state-created danger – failure to protect the children.

The lawsuit charges “lack of training” provided to employees involved in the handling of the cases by Blair and Clearfield counties and the city of Altoona.

In addition, it requests damages for emotional distress and battery of the children.

District Judge Stephanie L. Haines in Johnstown will preside over the case.