Ex-DCFS Worker Guilty of Endangerment in Death of 5-Year-Old AJ Freun…

(WTTW News)

WOODSTOCK, Ill. (AP) — A judge convicted a former state child welfare worker Friday of child endangerment in connection with the 2019 beating death of a 5-year-old suburban Chicago boy by his mother, but the judge acquitted the man’s supervisor.

Lake County Judge George Strickland found Carlos Acosta, 57 of Woodstock, who was a case investigator for the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, guilty of the child endangerment charge but acquitted him of a reckless conduct charge, news outlets reported.

Strickland said he could not find Acosta’s supervisor, Andrew Polovin, 51, of Island Lake, guilty of either charge because he did not know how much Polovin knew about the abuse of the boy, Andrew “AJ” Freund of Crystal Lake.

AJ died in April 2019 after being beaten by his mother. JoAnn Cunningham. She is serving a 35-year sentence for his murder.

The boy’s father, Andrew Freund Sr., was sentenced to 30 years in prison for covering up the…