2 ex-child welfare workers face charges in slain boy case

WOODSTOCK, Ill. (AP) — Two former Illinois child welfare workers who investigated abuse allegations involving a 5-year-old boy allegedly killed months later by his parents face child endangerment charges. They’re accused of failing to protect Andrew “A.J.” Freund from harm. Fifty-four-year-old Carlos Acosta, of Woodstock, and his former supervisor, 48-year-old Andrew Polovin of Island Lake, face charges of endangering the life of a child and reckless conduct. The Northwest Herald reports that an indictment filed Friday accuses them of allowing the boy to be placed in circumstances “that endangered AJ’s life or health.” The boy was found dead in a shallow grave near his family’s Crystal Lake home in April 2019.