DCFS workers could’ve saved 5-year-old AJ Freund from beating death if they’d acted on abuse complaint, administrator testifies

A former child welfare supervisor expressed surprise when he saw a picture of a large red bruise on 5-year-old AJ Freund, but suggested acceptance of the boy’s explanation that the dog did it.

“Yikes that looks nasty, but if that’s what the kid says,” he texted, according to court testimony.

That supervisor, Andrew Polovin, and former child welfare worker Carlos Acosta failed to take basic steps to investigate AJ’s abuse that could have saved him before he was beaten to death, a former top state administrator testified Tuesday.

Acosta, 57, of Woodstock, and Polovin, 51, of Island Lake, each are charged with child endangerment and reckless conduct for their handling of signs of abuse by AJ’s mother, JoAnn Cunningham.

Acosta should have questioned all of the people involved more thoroughly, should have reviewed prior police and medical reports, and should have referred the case to special investigators, former Illinois Department of Children and Family Services Regional Administrator Carol Ruzicka said.

And Polovin, Acosta’s supervisor, should have required Acosta to follow those mandated steps in the investigation, Ruzicka said.

AJ died April 15, 2019, after he was beaten and forced into a cold shower by his mother. Cunningham pleaded guilty to his murder and was sentenced to 35 years in prison.

The boy’s father, Andrew Freund Sr., was sentenced to 30 years in prison for his convictions related to covering up the murder by burying the boy’s body in a field.

Prosecutors argue that the child welfare workers should have caught obvious signs that AJ was being abused almost four months before his death. Defense attorneys countered that evidence of AJ’s abuse only became clear in hindsight, and that investigators didn’t have enough information to take him away from his mother.

Police went to the family’s home in Crystal Lake on Dec. 18, 2018, after Cunningham called 911 to report a boyfriend had stolen her prescription drugs for depression and opioid treatment.

The officer found AJ and his little brother with Cunningham in their car, wearing only T-shirts and a diaper, with no shoes. The home was a “disgusting” mess with urine and feces on a ripped-up floor, with holes in the ceiling, clothes and belongings strewed everywhere, and broken and open windows letting in the winter cold, Crystal Lake police Officer Kimberley Shipbaugh testified.

When Shipbaugh saw a large, red bruise above AJ’s hip wrapping around his torso, and asked him how it happened, his mother said the dog did it, to which he agreed. Police then took the boys into protective custody.

But later under a medical examination, AJ said, “Maybe someone hit me with a belt,” and “Maybe Mommy didn’t mean to hurt me.” The doctor examining him was alarmed and didn’t want to return AJ to his mother, but Acosta let the protective custody end.

Cunningham had a history of abuse and medical and police issues. She initially had lost custody of AJ when she gave birth to him with heroin in his system. She underwent counseling and drug treatment and later regained custody.

In March 2018, she was found asleep in a car with fresh heroin needle marks on her arms, feet and neck, which prompted a previous DCFS investigation. In July, she repeatedly threatened suicide and was accused of battery to a hospital worker at West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park.

Acosta should have gathered and reviewed all those records to be aware of her history, Ruzicka said. The explanation by AJ and Cunningham that the dog caused AJ’s bruise by “pawing” him was not believable, Ruzicka said.

His case should have been referred to McHenry County’s Child Advocacy Center, which has trained specialists to interview potential child abuse victims, she said. Freund Sr. and Cunningham’s prior live-in boyfriend, Daniel Nowicki, also should have been interviewed.

“Procedures dictate that all members of the household need to be interviewed,” Ruzicka said.

The case was closed Jan. 4, 2019, and classified as unfounded, meaning there wasn’t enough evidence to substantiate an abuse allegation.

Ruzicka was the regional administrator for Acosta and Polovin at the time, but not actively involved in the investigation.

The defendants also could have referred Cunningham and Freund for substance abuse treatment, especially based on their history, and for counseling on parenting and mental health, which Ruzicka said would have prevented the boy’s death.

“You’d want to address the home itself,” she said.

Earlier Tuesday, Lake County Judge George Strickland, who is hearing the case in McHenry County Circuit Court because judges there recused themselves, had temporarily delayed the trial and ordered attorneys to resolve a discrepancy in court documents.

Defense attorney Rebecca Lee objected that some of prosecutors’ questions were based on their copy of DCFS procedures that were not in effect in December 2018, when Acosta was assigned the case. Because Strickland is trying the case himself, without a jury hearing incorrect evidence, he said the problem was “fixable.”

On cross-examination, Ruzicka conceded that a bruise by itself does not prove abuse, and did not rise to the DCFS designation of “serious harm.”

She also said that the agency’s written procedures do not call for discipline for failing to follow its procedures, though both Acosta and Polovin were later disciplined and no longer work for the agency.