Attorney Seeks Consent Disbarment For Crimes Involving His Son’s Death
An Illinois attorney has filed a motion for disbarment by consent in the wake of his plea to a superseding information
According to the superseding information filed against Movant in case number 19CF290, on or about March 4, 2019, Movant committed the offense of aggravated battery of a child when he struck A.F. (D.O.B. 10/14/2013), a minor child under 13 years of age, on or about his body thereby causing great bodily harm; Movant committed the offense of involuntary manslaughter when he, acting in a reckless manner, performed an act likely to cause death or great bodily harm to A.F., in that he, a parent of A.F., with knowledge that Joann Cunningham was subjecting A.F. to an ongoing pattern of abuse, left A.F. in the bathroom with Cunningham as she repeatedly struck A.F. and these acts ultimately caused the death of A.F; and Movant committed the offense of concealment of homicidal death when he, with knowledge that A.F. had died by homicidal means, concealed the death of A.F. in that he wrapped the body of A.F. in plastic bags, buried the body of A.F. in a field in Woodstock, Illinois and then subsequently reported A.F. as missing.
The criminal sentence
Judge Wilbrandt Jr., entered a judgment of conviction against Movant in case number 19CF290 and sentenced Movant as follows: on count one for aggravated battery of a child, 11 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections, to be served at 85 percent, and three years mandatory supervised release; on count two for involuntary manslaughter, 14 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections and two years mandatory supervised release; and on count three for concealment of homicidal death, five years in the Illinois Department of Corrections and one year mandatory supervised release. Judge Wilbrandt Jr., further ordered that the sentences in all three counts run consecutively and that Movant register under the Violent Offender Against Youth Registration Act.
The Chicago Tribune reported on the criminal case at length
He noticed her crying that day inside the McHenry County courthouse.
JoAnn Cunningham was facing a divorce. She had no job, no attorney and — by her own admission — was addicted to a dangerous mix of up to 15 prescription painkillers a day to ease the aching she said she felt throughout her body.
Andrew Freund, a local attorney nearly 25 years Cunningham’s senior, approached her in the hallway. He had addiction problems himself, with pills and alcohol, that had threatened his legal career. But Freund still had his license. He walked up and offered to help.
Their chance meeting in early 2012 spiraled into a dysfunctional relationship fueled by drug abuse and violence. The following year the Crystal Lake couple had their first child together: Andrew Thomas Freund Jr.
They called him AJ. Less than six years later he was dead, and Cunningham, 36, and Freund, 60, stand charged with murder.
The grim details of AJ’s fatal abuse have again forced the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services to answer difficult questions about how it responded when police, hospital staff and others raised concerns. And a close review of the case by the Tribune shows DCFS failed to properly assess the dangers AJ faced in his home.
But any examination of the boy’s short life and brutal death begins long before DCFS was involved.
It begins with his parents — damaged individuals who got clean of heroin to regain custody of AJ but eventually fell apart, leaving them unable to pay bills or provide a safe home for their children. Their history includes multiple police and child-welfare hotline calls, a filthy house, domestic violence, misdemeanor arrests and two prior incidents in which AJ had suspicious bruising.
Even knowing all this, the way AJ died was shocking. The 5-year-old boy who loved books and puzzles, playing with firetrucks, bulldozers and his two brothers was fatally beaten in his own home, prosecutors say. His parents allegedly forced AJ into a cold shower, put him to bed wet and naked and, after they found he had died, reported their son missing.
After six days of searching, the child was found in a shallow grave, wrapped in plastic, about 7 miles from his home.
Cunningham’s mother, Lori Hughes, knew her daughter was capable of many terrible things, from lying to manipulation to neglect. But Hughes, in her first public comments since the tragedy unfolded, said she still cannot understand how the artistic, straitlaced “girly girl” she raised is now accused of something so unfathomable.
“This is the JoAnn I raised,” said Hughes, holding a photo of Cunningham on her wedding day. “She was a beautiful girl. She was a beautiful woman and a great mom. She really was.”
Hughes paused.
“Up until the drug use.”
(Mike Frisch)