Carlos Acosta listens as Lake County Judge George Strickland finds him guilty on Oct. 13, 2023, at the McHenry County courthouse.
Gregory Shaver/Shaw Local News Network
A former employee of Illinois’ child welfare agency convicted of mishandling the AJ Freund case months before the Crystal Lake boy was killed by his mother completed his jail term this week.
Carlos Acosta, 58, was convicted in October of two counts of child endangerment. He was sentenced to six months in jail along with fines, 30 months of probation and 200 hours of public service, a sentencing order filed in the McHenry County court said.
Acosta, of Woodstock, in a rare move by the McHenry County State’s Attorney’s Office, was charged criminally in his capacity as a child protection specialist for the Department of Children and Family Services.
His supervisor, Andrew Polovin, 52, of Island Lake, was also charged but was found not guilty by Lake County Judge George Strickland, who said he could not determine what Polovin knew about Acosta’s efforts in the AJ case.
Acosta’s potential sentence ranged from probation to 10 years in prison. He was sentenced to 180 days in the county jail but required to serve only half.
At his trial, Acosta was accused of failing to take the required measures to protect AJ despite strong evidence of continued abuse and neglect by his parents. The boy had been placed in foster care because he was born with drugs in his system, but eventually returned to his parents, JoAnn Cunningham and Andrew Freund Sr., who were both eventually convicted in connection with AJ’s death.
Much of the testimony centered on what occurred after an emergency 911 call was made on Dec. 18, 2018, by a Crystal Lake police officer concerned about AJ’s welfare. The judge found Acosta did not follow the rules of DCFS, and because of that, the child was killed months later.