Attorneys for two Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials accused of child molestation filed for a mistrial moments after the alleged victim took the stand, Channel 2 Action News reported.
Kimberly Quinlan Lindsey, on leave from the CDC without pay, and her husband Thomas Joseph Westerman, formerly a resource management specialist, are accused of molesting a 6-year-old boy in two separate incidents in 2011.
At the time of the incident Lindsey served as deputy director of Laboratory Science Policy and Practice Program Office at the CDC.
DeKalb police were notified of the accusations against the couple in August 2011 by a pediatrician who learned of the alleged abuse from the boy’s grandmother.
The couple, who married after their arrests, were indicted in 2013.
The case garnered national attention when Lindsey was allowed to return to her position after her arrest. Westerman lost his job following the accusations.
Westerman was arrested on separate child abuse accusations in 2008 but was cleared of any wrongdoing.
Those allegations coincided with a divorce suit brought by his first wife. Attorneys for the couple have suggested that lingering acrimony from that case led to the current charges.
Lindsey, an Emory University graduate, has been with the CDC since 1999 and at one point was responsible for overseeing a $1.5 billion fiscal allocation process for terrorism preparedness.