IL - Andrew Freund, 5, Crystal Lake, 17 April 2019 *ARRESTS* *mother guilty* #5

[MyBelle]

An unfit parent is defined in Illinois as someone who can objectively be found to not have the child or children's best interests at heart. ... Some of the more common concerns include abandonment, neglect, demonstrable cruelty toward the child, a lack of interest or responsibility, substance abuse, or addiction.May 12, 2017
Determining Parental Fitness in Illinois - Illinois Divorce Lawyers | DuPage County Family Law Attorneys

Sadly, despite AJ being a victim all of the above, he was forced to endure more.

Also:

What is the Voluntary Acknowledgement of Paternity?

The VAP is a legal document that is used to establish paternity for unwed parents. Once
the VAP is completed and filed with HFS, it will be used to have the father’s name added
to the child’s birth certificate.

If parents choose to take the VAP home to complete, both parents must read the
instructions and parents’ rights and responsibilities on the back of the form or call
1-844-215-6576 to hear the oral explanation. Parents must then complete, sign, date have
the VAP witnessed by a person 18 years or older who is not a person named on the form,
and mail to HFS-Administrative Coordination Unit where it will be verified and filed.

A VAP can be completed, signed, witnessed, and filed at any time for any child.

Where can parents get a VAP?

A VAP may be obtained from any of the following locations:

• Hospital
• Local Child Support Office
• HFS/DCSS website - Illinois Voluntary Acknowledgement of Paternity HFS 3416B
• Any Department of Human Services office
• Any County Clerks's office; or
• Any state or local Registrar's office

Who can sign the VAP?
Any biological parent may sign the VAP, including:

• Parents who are not legally married or in a civil union
• Minors without the consent of a parent or guardian, and
• Non-US citizens if the child was born in the U.S.

(Since MSM found court documents stating Drew is not the father of the unborn baby, imo the father has already submitted to a dna test & is known. If not, even if the father is incarcerated he can sign a VAP from the convenience of his home/cell, with a deputy witnessing it, or his attorney could serve as witness)
I am not implying the father will seek custody, only that he might wish his family to be considered as the baby’s adoptive family.

Moo

Why would the alleged father want to sign a VAP? Does he want to pay child support? Because they are unmarried, the father must also initiate action in IL Parentage Court if he wants custody or even parenting time.

No way has the cash-strapped state of IL paid for an expensive DNA test prior to birth. The alleged father is in jail on assault and lived in the home and did nothing to protect the unborn child, AJ and P from the mother's drug use and fits of rage and cruelty. I'm confident he'll get nowhere near the new baby.

A common misperception of the VAP is that it automatically grants the father full rights to parental responsibilities. This is not the case. The VAP serves as the ability for the father to be named on the birth certificate, and therefore be liable for child support.

What Rights Does a Father Have if He is on the Birth Certificate?

 

[Trudie]

We will never know why JC singled AJ out.
During moments of sobriety (after relapsing) she likely hated herself, her family & the world at large.
I’m ust totally peed off that Drew did not call 911 for her, before things escalated to the point of no return. He could have called an ambulance, police or her mom. Maybe she would have been admitted to a facility & medically detoxed.
IMO, we are going to hear her relapse started when she got hooked up with DN.
AJ’s abuse & murder both could have easily been prevented. Moo

 

[Tippy Lynn]

Yes 1,000 Likes for this for all of the hard work.

Thank you!!!

 

[Tippy Lynn]

I have been here at WS for quite some time now and I have to say that this case its probably one of the most horrendous, and upsetting cases, of child abuse I have encountered. Between AJ, Noah, and Lukas, I am speechless.

What is happening in our society that people commit such atrocious crimes against children?

I am so angry. Sigh.......

 

[nyvictoria]

Interesting and relevant read about treating opioid disorder in prison.

Setting Precedent, A Federal Court Rules Jail Must Give Inmate Addiction Treatment

This makes me so angry I could scream!! It’s prison! Not rehab!

 

[Trudie]

This makes me so angry I could scream!! It’s prison! Not rehab!

If they are coming out after a brief stint, yeah. But if they are LWOP or 5+ years, let them do it on their own. They have “time” to work thru it.
JC should be excluded from WD meds, as soon as she has the baby. She cared none about AJ’s discomfort & pain. None! Let her experience it, while locked in her room, alone, hoping someone helps her. She makes me sick!

 

[Trudie]

Here’s the programs at Logan Correctional, which appears to be the only high level prison for women. This is actually a multi-level prison:

Inmate Programs

Academic:

• ABE (Adult Basic Education)
• Pre GED (General Education Development)
• GED (General Education Development)
• Nail Technology
• Cosmetology
• Hair Braiding

Vocational:

• Construction Occupation
• College Associate Degree
• Career Technology
• Food Services
• Horticulture

Industries:

• Recycling Shop
• Helping Paws Program

Volunteer Services:

• Cake Decorating Class
• Family Connections Visitation
• Operations Storybook.
• Mom & Me Summer Summer Camp
• Mom & Me Mother's Day Camp
• Mentoring Children of Incarcerated Parents
• Angel Tree
• Operation Ponytail
• Chicago Legal Aid for Incarcerated Mothers (CLAIM)
• Religious Services
• Social Graces

Other:

• Project Read/Literacy Program
• Wells Residential Substance Abuse Treatment Program
• Dual Diagnosis
• Women of Hope Unit
• Women of Victory Unit
• Sobriety Group
• Drug Education Program
• Parenting
• Toastmasters
• Book Club
• Stress Management
• Anger Management
• Healthy Relationships
• Lifestyle Redirection
• TRAC I
• Healing Through Positive Self-Image
• Domestic Violence
• Sexual Assault/Abuse Group
• HIV Support Group
• Hospice/Adult Care
• Mental Health
• Leisure Time Services
• Phoenix Rising
• Re-entry Summits
• Out in Week Boutique
• Seeking Safety
• Facilities & Visitation

IMO, we can rule out Me & Mom/storybook Time & family connection time

 

[Trudie]

Why would the alleged father want to sign a VAP? Does he want to pay child support? Because they are unmarried, the father must also initiate action in IL Parentage Court if he wants custody or even parenting time.

No way has the cash-strapped state of IL paid for an expensive DNA test prior to birth. The alleged father is in jail on assault and lived in the home and did nothing to protect the unborn child, AJ and P from the mother's drug use and fits of rage and cruelty. I'm confident he'll get nowhere near the new baby.

A common misperception of the VAP is that it automatically grants the father full rights to parental responsibilities. This is not the case. The VAP serves as the ability for the father to be named on the birth certificate, and therefore be liable for child support.

What Rights Does a Father Have if He is on the Birth Certificate?

I can think of a lot of reasons the bio dad might wish to be involved. Perhaps authentic love for his child.
Or nefarious reasons, like publicity, donations, welfare services, or simply to prevent someone else from having his kid.
IMO the state has proof of the father, which will allow them to move forward once the baby is born.
Jmo

 

[nyvictoria]

Here’s the programs at Logan Correctional, which appears to be the only high level prison for women. This is actually a multi-level prison:

Inmate Programs

Academic:

• ABE (Adult Basic Education)
• Pre GED (General Education Development)
• GED (General Education Development)
• Nail Technology
• Cosmetology
• Hair Braiding

Vocational:

• Construction Occupation
• College Associate Degree
• Career Technology
• Food Services
• Horticulture

Industries:

• Recycling Shop
• Helping Paws Program

Volunteer Services:

• Cake Decorating Class
• Family Connections Visitation
• Operations Storybook.
• Mom & Me Summer Summer Camp
• Mom & Me Mother's Day Camp
• Mentoring Children of Incarcerated Parents
• Angel Tree
• Operation Ponytail
• Chicago Legal Aid for Incarcerated Mothers (CLAIM)
• Religious Services
• Social Graces

Other:

• Project Read/Literacy Program
• Wells Residential Substance Abuse Treatment Program
• Dual Diagnosis
• Women of Hope Unit
• Women of Victory Unit
• Sobriety Group
• Drug Education Program
• Parenting
• Toastmasters
• Book Club
• Stress Management
• Anger Management
• Healthy Relationships
• Lifestyle Redirection
• TRAC I
• Healing Through Positive Self-Image
• Domestic Violence
• Sexual Assault/Abuse Group
• HIV Support Group
• Hospice/Adult Care
• Mental Health
• Leisure Time Services
• Phoenix Rising
• Re-entry Summits
• Out in Week Boutique
• Seeking Safety
• Facilities & Visitation

IMO, we can rule out Me & Mom/storybook Time & family connection time

Also anything that will put her near animals or scissors. Ideally she should be locked in a cell 23 hours a day. Actually that may be her reality for a while for her protection.

 

[Trudie]

Also anything that will put her near animals or scissors. Ideally she should be locked in a cell 23 hours a day. Actually that may be her reality for a while for her protection.

Or people.
I’d love to think she’ll spend her life in ad seg, alone, with no companionship, no prison job & no commissary funds.
But, it doesn’t work that way. She’ll have orientation, then be assigned her permanent cell block, depending on her behavior, things will get easier as time passes.
She’ll be in the max security area, I would think. So she won’t be with women serving light sentences for shoplifting or slapping someone. She will be with the worst female inmates IL incarcerates. Moo

 

[Trudie]

Is she just a haunting figure? Enlarge on your screen.
Look into her eyes. There’s nothing there......

 

[Boodles]

Not gloating on these monsters but the kids seemed to have been decently dressed from a couple photos I had seen and they were as well back then(but it could’ve been a front. I’m not sure) I saw photos of their house and noticed their dog food wasn’t a cheap brand either like most who are Broke would use. But, that’s as much credit as they’ll get from me; they’re monsters.

Abusers can be experts at doing things for appearances. For example, posting smiling, happy pix on social media saying life is wonderful. And buying brand names and frantic shopping, spending every dime, can be a symptom, too. But they were in debt, being foreclosed upon, etc. She could afford hair dye, nail products but not food for her kids.

 

[Trudie]

Abusers can be experts at doing things for appearances. For example, posting smiling, happy pix on social media saying life is wonderful. And buying brand names and frantic shopping, spending every dime, can be a symptom, too. But they were in debt, being foreclosed upon, etc. She could afford hair dye, nail products but not food for her kids.

They had money for drugs, hotels, cell phones, train fare & had to have food at some point.
I think Drew didn’t want the house any longer & let it go downhill, ending in foreclosure.
Who knows what she had planned. Her boyfriend will get some time, imo. Maybe JC planned to continue living with Drew until her boyfriend was released or she found a new guy.

 

[apricotpeach]

That is part of the problem, should each child have a separate file? Or "family file" with each child having a separate folder. It gets confusing, when you have medical, educational, psychological, legal, case management paperwork for each family member.

I have a friend who works in a local DCFS (not in IL) - she said their protocol is to label the file with the mother's name. So all of the records go in one file based on the mother's name, with all of the kids under the mother's care/custody. The father's name is used as the case name only if the mother is absent and the kid(s) lives with the father/has full custody.

So I guess in a way, the cases are built around the parent.

 

[mickey2942]

I can think of a lot of reasons the bio dad might wish to be involved. Perhaps authentic love for his child.
Or nefarious reasons, like publicity, donations, welfare services, or simply to prevent someone else from having his kid.
IMO the state has proof of the father, which will allow them to move forward once the baby is born.
Jmo

Control. A man can maintain control over a woman by still being in a woman's life, even if she doesn't want him. This forces a connection.

 

[mickey2942]

Also anything that will put her near animals or scissors. Ideally she should be locked in a cell 23 hours a day. Actually that may be her reality for a while for her protection.

I used to work in a prison, until I just got tired of the constant lying and manipulation. (And catching lice all of the time).

INMO, most of them are an entitled bunch, who should just be moving large boulders from one side of the prison yard to the other side for 8 hours a day.

 

[MyBelle]

I can think of a lot of reasons the bio dad might wish to be involved. Perhaps authentic love for his child.
Or nefarious reasons, like publicity, donations, welfare services, or simply to prevent someone else from having his kid.
IMO the state has proof of the father, which will allow them to move forward once the baby is born.
Jmo

How would the state have proof of paternity? The presumptive father is AF because he and JC are married. Both AF and JC have given up their parental rights.

The state's priority is the health of the unborn child and her addict mother. If the bio father wants to claim paternity, he would have to petition Parentage Court and would get nowhere.

JMO

The Presumed Father in Illinois Paternity
The Illinois Parentage Act provides that a man is the "presumed" father of the child if any of the following are true:

• He is married to the mother, or in a civil union or substantially similar relationship when the child is born;
• He was married or in a civil union with the mother, but the marriage was terminated within 300 days prior to the birth of the child;
• The child was born during or within 300 days of an invalid marriage or civil union into which the he and the mother entered in apparent compliance with the law;
• He married or entered into a civil union with the mother after the child's birth, and he is listed as the child's father on the child's birth certificate.

Illinois Paternity Law Explained
2016/2017 family law changes

 

[Trudie]

They gave up parental rights to P, not to the unborn child.
Court documents state AF is not the father of the unborn child.
It is possible the bio father has been determined, even before her arrest. Perhaps JC had a test early on to prove to the bio he is the father.
Moo

Consideration will be given to family members
In Illinois, consideration for children born to mothers serving time is given to family members if it's in the best interest of the child. Court documents obtained by CNN on Thursday said the father of Cunningham's baby is not Freund.

Pregnant mother accused of killing her son to give birth while in jail

 

[Trudie]

most of them are an entitled bunch, who should just be moving large boulders from one side of the prison yard to the other side for 8 hours a day.

If only!

 

[katydid23]

*I’m not sure if this was previously posted.

AJ Freund's home previously met health, safety standards, county records show

The home where police believe 5-year-old Andrew “AJ” Freund was beaten to death by his parents was not always in the squalid condition it is today, McHenry County Department of Health records show.

Records from 2014 and 2015 show that for some time, JoAnn Cunningham, the boy’s mother and a self-admitted addict, steered clear of drugs and kept the home on Dole Avenue in a livable condition.

Eventually, the commitment made by Cunningham and AJ’s father, Andrew Freund Sr., to keep up with health and safety standards fell to the wayside, however, which was evidenced by police reports and affidavits that described the home at the time AJ was reported missing. Officers who searched for AJ reported seeing mouse droppings and cockroaches throughout the home, as well as garbage bags piled on top of one another.

The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services temporarily took custody of AJ in October 2013 after he was born with opiates in his system, DCFS records show. He spent the next two years in foster care before he was court-ordered to return to his mother in June 2015.

About that time, home visits were conducted by Family Case Management program workers who are employed through the county’s health department, said Keri Zaleski, the health department’s community information coordinator.

Reports from a July 10, 2014, visit to the home, described a house that met county health department standards.

“[Cunningham] states she has no problems with keeping appointments since she has been sober,” the report stated. “Mom states she has been sober for seven months and is motivated to stay this way.”

Another report from a visit conducted March 13, 2015, claimed Cunningham was “doing good now.”

The county’s health department inspected the home based on specific criteria, and on both visits, it determined the house had proper heating and sanitation, food storage and cooking facilities. It also was free of insects and rodents, reports show.

Additional home visits were performed by a Youth Service Bureau of Illinois worker who made 17 unannounced visits to the home between June 24, 2015, and March 11, 2016, and nine planned visits between June 17, 2015, and April 13, 2016. The worker did not observe any signs of abuse or neglect, DCFS records show.

The Abused and Neglected Child Report Act defines neglect as failing to provide care such as adequate food, clothing and shelter, among other necessities.


AJ Freund's home previously met health, safety standards, county records show | Northwest Herald

from the report above:

Reports from a July 10, 2014, visit to the home, described a house that met county health department standards.

“[Cunningham] states she has no problems with keeping appointments since she has been sober,” the report stated. “Mom states she has been sober for seven months and is motivated to stay this way.”

Another report from a visit conducted March 13, 2015, claimed Cunningham was “doing good now.”

===================================================

What worries me about the above report is the way it takes 'statements' from the accused , and reports them as fact. IE---'mom states she has been sober for 7 months....'

How many times has an addict told you they have been sober for x amount of months, only to find out later, they were high as a kite while talking to you?