A DCFS worker who was sentenced to six months in jail for failing to protect AJ Freund, the 5-year-old Crystal Lake boy murdered by his mother, has been released after completing his sentence.
Lake County Associate Judge George Strickland sentenced former DCFS social worker Carlos J. Acosta, 58, of Woodstock, to six months in jail in June after saying that the man intentionally failed to prevent the death of AJ Freund, 5, of Crystal Lake.
Before being sentenced to jail, Acosta told Strickland, “A day does not go by where do not regret and feel remorse over the loss of AJ.”
“I am truly sorry for the pain that I have caused AJs family,” Acosta said during the sentencing hearing.
“I am not the lazy, uncaring monster (McHenry County State’s Attorney) Patrick (Kenneally) has portrayed me to be. I am a social worker. I have lived in and served my community for the last 20 years. I have served as a volunteer. I have served as a professional. I have served as an appointed official,” Acosta said.
“That being said, I do accept responsibility for my role in this tragedy,” he added.
Aside from the six-month sentence in the McHenry County Jail, Strickland ordered Acosta to serve 30 months of probation, perform 200 hours of community service and make a $500 donation to the McHenry County Children’s Advocacy Center.
Acosta was stoic and unflinching with his hands crossed on the table when Strickland announced his sentence.
He was immediately taken into custody by McHenry County sheriff’s deputies to begin serving his sentence.
Acosta faced up to 10 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections. He could have also been sentenced to probation.
On Monday, Acosta was released from the McHenry County Jail after his sentence was considered served in three months due to him receiving day-for-day credit.
AJ was five years old and living in Crystal Lake when he was murdered by his mother in 2019 and dumped in a shallow grave near Woodstock.
Police recovered AJ’s body following a week-long search for the child and AJ’s parents, Andrew Freund Sr. and JoAnn Cunningham, were both charged with first-degree murder for his death in April 2019.
Cunningham pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and was sentenced to 35 years in the Logan Correctional Center in Lincoln, Illinois.
Andrew Freund Sr. also pleaded guilty as part of a plea deal to aggravated battery to a child, involuntary manslaughter, and concealing a homicidal death. He is serving 30 years in prison.
Over a year later, the McHenry County State’s Attorney’s Office charged Acosta and DCFS Supervisor Andrew R. Polovin, now 52, of Island Lake, with two counts of endangering the life of a child causing death, a Class 3 felony, and one count of reckless conduct causing great bodily harm, a Class 4 felony.
The state’s attorney’s office said the basis of the charges was Acosta ignored the duties of his job and attempted to cover up missteps he made by not investigating the abuse AJ suffered before his death.
Most notably, AJ was brought into an emergency room with bruises on his body on Dec. 18, 2018, and told emergency room workers his mother beat him with a belt.
Authorities said Acosta ignored the incident and sent AJ back to live with his mother despite requests to intervene.
Strickland found Polovin not guilty of all three of his charges during his trial in 2023.
Throughout his trial, Acosta’s attorneys blamed the long hours and low pay the Woodstock man received while working at DCFS as to why incidents of abuse were missed in AJ’s case.
Acosta’s attorneys argued their client correctly followed DCFS procedures when handling AJ’s case.
Strickland found Acosta guilty of two counts of child endangerment and not guilty of his third charge of reckless conduct on October 13 following a month-long trial in September 2023.
During Acosta’s sentencing hearing, McHenry County Assistant State’s Attorney Randi Freese spelled out how Acosta ignored obvious signs of child abuse through bruises on AJ’s body and the deplorable living conditions the boy was living in.
Freese said Acosta did nothing to step in and help the child.
“He (AJ) needed help. He wanted help. But the problem is that this guy got assigned the case,” Freese said, pointing at Acosta. “The child abuse investigator who couldn’t have cared less.”
Freese added AJ was a burden and an inconvenience to Acosta, and the former DCFS worker spent more energy covering up his role after AJ was found dead than helping AJ when the boy was still alive.
“He (AJ) got the defendant, who handed him right back into the arms of his abusers without doing a single thing to protect him,” Freese said. “And, as this court saw through those haunting horrific videos, AJ would spend the next four months of his life – the last four months of his life – being tortured and abused.”
In arguing for probation, defense attorney Rebecca Lee tried to steer Strickland’s attention away from the evidence presented at trial and, instead, focus on the fact Acosta had never been charged with a crime before this case, was unlikely to re-offend and would never be allowed to make a career as a social worker again.
“Carlos has absolutely no criminal history whatsoever,” Lee said. “In fact, he spent his entire adult life and career trying to help people.”
When handing down the sentence, Strickland said he considered all factors in the case, from knowing Acosta is unlikely to commit similar crimes again, deterrence to protect others from doing similar crimes and how the actions of Acosta were factors in the death of AJ.
“So, at the end of the day, AJ suffered, society ignored him, DCFS ignored him, Mr. Polovin ignored him and, worst of all, Mr. Acossta ignored him,” Strickland said. “So, in this case, what AJ deserved was a chance. And what AJ deserved was a happy life. And what AJ got was a shallow grave.”