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The nation was rattled last year when the AJ Freund case made the headlines. In short, a severely abused young boy (was going on for years) was beaten to death and the parents tried to hide his body. They tried to play victim, but local authorities saw right through it and did a fantastic job investigating and getting AJ’s parents charged. All of the evidence was with DCFS, but they didn’t do crap. One of those DCFS people involved in the case is (now going to be “was”) first term Democrat McHenry County Board member Carlos Acosta.
Carlos ran as a reformer, someone who deeply cared about children. Just look at him campaigning here:
“Preventing child abuse”......yeah, he dropped the ball on that one. In fact he tried to defend his actions:
Acosta was the child protection specialist assigned to check a December 2018 call from Crystal Lake police about a bruise on Freund’s right hip. The boy gave varying explanations for the injury, including that the family dog had done it during play. But records show he also told an emergency room doctor, “Maybe mommy didn’t mean to hurt me.”
Acosta, who is also the subject of a federal lawsuit stemming from the case, said department policy is that children’s statements become less reliable each time they are interviewed. He said he followed protocol in not going back to question the child about the bruise and that the child’s injuries didn’t meet the threshold to get a second opinion from a pediatric specialist.
Acosta said he’s emotionally torn but stands by his decisions.
“I don’t deny the fact that I was there four months before and that’s something that I’m going to have to live with forever,” Acosta told Shaw Media Illinois. “And again, should have, could have, would have. Did I still follow the policy and weigh the evidence that I had at the time? Yes.”
Here’s an image from AJ’s hospital visit to which Acosta was called to investigate:
If you were DCFS, would you send a child back to an environment that this happened in, especially knowing the track record of the parents? Well, Acosta had a track record of not doing the right thing:
The last child welfare investigator who made contact with Andrew “AJ” Freund before the young Crystal Lake boy was allegedly killed by his parents is a local elected official with a history of workplace complaints and a recent suspension, according to documents reviewed by the Tribune.
In one case, the investigator was disciplined for ignoring a court order to connect a family with support services, delaying help for four children in a home with a record of domestic violence and alcohol abuse, the documents show. Separately, prosecutors wrote a letter saying he failed to alert them about a mother’s heroin use and that he refused to hold a child because he was worried about bedbugs.
The investigator, 53-year-old Carlos Acosta, serves on the McHenry County Board — first elected in November following a campaign that highlighted his decades of experience in social services.
Well, some good news. Carlos has been arrested and charged due to his actions (or lack of):
A pair of former child welfare employees who had prior contact with slain Crystal Lake boy AJ Freund and his family were arrested Thursday on child endangerment charges.
McHenry County Board member and former Illinois Department of Children and Family Services employees Carlos Acosta, 54, was arrested and charged with two felony counts of endangering the life of a child and one felony count of reckless conduct.
I wonder how long the McHenry County Democratic Party will be leaving this up?
This guy also double dipped on his paychecks by being clocked in at DCFS while he was on the clock for the county board.
Now, you might be asking why we, a 2A site, are covering this story. It just so happens that the county party that backed this guy has been in the news before regarding children. They were using public schools as a recruitment ground for gun control rallies and possibly violated state ethics laws by doing so. Below is an email from party leaders looking for fresh young recruits:
If politicians and political operatives really believe children are our greatest gifts on earth, then why don’t they protect them when it’s needed and why do they use them as props for political rallies instead of letting them be kids (you know, let them do kid things)?
We are glad that justice for AJ is being done and that all parties involved (his parents and the terrible DCFS employees that didn’t do their job) are being brought to justice.
