AJ Freund could have been saved from beating death if DCFS workers had asked for help, doctor and prosecutors testify
Five-year-old A.J. Freund’s life could have been saved if child welfare workers had alerted other specialists about his case, two former county prosecutors and a doctor testified Thursday.
“Something should have been done,” said Dr. Demetra Soter, director of child protective services for Cook County Health. “There are many options that could have saved AJ’s life.”
The testimony came in the trial of former Department of Children and Family Services investigator Carlos Acosta and his supervisor, Andrew Polovin. Each is charged with child endangerment and reckless conduct in connection with AJ’s death, which came after he was repeatedly abused by his mother in Crystal Lake in 2019.
Almost four months before his death, on Dec. 18, 2018, police took AJ and his 3-year-old brother into protective custody, after finding what one officer called a “horrific” bruise on AJ’s hip and marks on his face, and their home in disarray, strewed with urine and feces, and with broken windows, ceiling and flooring.
When he was asked by a doctor about the bruise, AJ said, “Maybe someone hit me with a belt,” and “Maybe Mommy didn’t mean to hurt me.”
The physician was alarmed and didn’t want to release the boy to his mother, JoAnn Cunningham. But the emergency doctor wasn’t specially trained in diagnosing abuse, and Acosta released AJ from protective custody that day. “He was abandoned into the hands of his killer,” prosecutors said earlier in opening arguments.
Defense attorneys countered that the charges amount to “Monday morning quarterbacking,” hindsight and speculation. They said that the defendants did as well as they could with the information they had at the time.
Cunningham had a history with the DCFS. She lost custody of AJ after she gave birth to him with heroin, cocaine and benzodiazepines in her body on Oct. 13, 2014. Cunningham underwent drug treatment and counseling, and got custody of AJ back after 18 months.
In March 2018, Cunningham was discovered asleep in a car with fresh heroin needle marks on her arms, feet and neck. DCFS investigated but let her keep her children. In July, Cunningham was hospitalized after being suicidal and threatening to jump in front of a bus, and was accused of attacking a hospital worker.
Still, she kept custody of AJ and his 3-year-old brother. Phone videos Cunningham took that were played in court showed her hitting and berating AJ repeatedly, asking who he was going to report her to.
Cunningham subjected AJ to beatings and a cold shower, resulting in his death April 15, 2019. She was sentenced to 35 years in prison for his murder. His father, Andrew Freund, Sr., was sentenced to 30 years in prison for concealing the death.
If the DCFS workers had referred the case to the Child Advocacy Center of McHenry County or the state’s attorney’s office, they could have further investigated and gotten a court order to put AJ into protective custody, testified former Winnebago County Assistant State’s Attorney Pamela Wells, who specialized in child abuse cases.
“You don’t leave the child in that situation to be injured again until you figure it out,” she said.
Or, intervenors could have arranged for services for the family, such as counseling, that would have allowed DCFS to monitor and protect AJ.
Had those steps been taken, she said, “It would be highly unlikely ... that AJ would have met his demise.”
E. Julia Almeida, a former McHenry County prosecutor of abuse and neglect cases, testified that she had weekly meetings with the DCFS office in Woodstock until Polovin ended the practice.
Almeida left the prosecutors’ office in 2019, but would have sought court intervention had she known of the case. “At least make sure the situation doesn’t get worse while the case is pending,” she said.
One of the options for AJ could have been to place him with the woman who raised him the first 18 months of his life — his mother’s cousin, who’d known Cunningham all her life from family get-togethers.
The cousin, who asked not to be identified, testified that she took AJ in as a foster parent when he was 4 weeks old, until she had to give him back after 18 months.
The cousin continued helping take care of AJ and his younger brother, sometimes spending the night so the parents “could get jobs and get back on their feet,” she said.
After one of the visits, she testified, Cunningham sent her an email stating that she felt AJ was exhibiting severe behavioral issues after spending time with the cousin, and she was going to prohibit contact going forward.
Since AJ’s death, the cousin has taken care of AJ’s brother. When asked if she would have taken AJ back, she said, “Absolutely.”
In one of the few bright spots of the trial, she smiled and said, “I’m his mother legally now.”
After what is expected to be a brief hearing Friday, the bench trial before Lake County Judge George Strickland is expected to be delayed about three weeks. Strickland is hearing the case because McHenry County judges recused themselves.
