Jury acquits CDC official of child molestation charges

DECATUR, Ga. – A jury has acquitted an official with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who had been accused of sexual acts involving a 6-year-old boy.

DeKalb County district attorney spokesman Marcus Garner tells The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (http://on-ajc.com/28SURrA) that Kimberly Quinlan Lindsey and ex-husband Thomas Joseph Westerman were acquitted Tuesday of child molestation charges in the case dating to 2011.

Lindsey's attorney Jason Sheffield says their main defense was to show that Lindsey was collateral damage in an ongoing feud between Westerman and his first wife. Sheffield says the child's mother had convinced him over the years that he'd been molested.

Sheffield says Lindsey hopes to return to her position as deputy director of the Office of Surveillance, Epidemiology and Laboratory Services at the Atlanta-based agency. She had been put on administrative leave.