By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

COLUMBIANA – A felony child abuse charge against a 29-year-old Bessemer woman has been dropped after she was acquitted by a Shelby County jury following a multi-day trial in Shelby County Circuit Court.

On Aug. 16, the 12-person jury found Caitlin Gregory Lunceford, who lists an address on Harpers Dairy Loop in Bessemer, not guilty on one count of aggravated child abuse. The jury’s decision came after Lunceford’s trial began in Shelby County Circuit Court on Aug. 13.

A Shelby County grand jury returned a one-count indictment of aggravated child abuse against Lunceford during its October 2014 term. She entered a plea of not guilty to the charge on Dec. 1, 2014.

According to Lunceford’s indictment, she had been charged with allegedly abusing her infant son, who was about 2 months old and in Lunceford’s care at the time of the incident, by “striking and/or hitting and punching and/or shaking the victim.” Lunceford’s arrest warrant claimed she had caused “brain damage” to the infant during the Jan. 11, 2014, incident at an Alabaster apartment complex.

The Alabaster Police Department arrested Lunceford on Jan. 23, 2014, and charged her with the Class B felony. She was released from the Shelby County Jail on a $30,000 bond the day after her arrest.

In 2014, Lunceford made multiple requests asking a previous court order denying her contact with her child be lifted, and requested she be allowed supervised visitation for one hour three nights per week.

In February 2014, Lunceford’s attorneys filed the results of a polygraph test Lunceford had taken at Sprayberry Polygraph Investigations. In a pre-polygraph-test interview, Lunceford “adamantly denied ever abusing her son or seeing (her husband) physically abusing (the child),” and said she “immediately took him to the hospital when she noticed something was wrong,” according to the test results.

During the test, the polygraphist, Jesse Sprayberry, asked Lunceford if she caused any of the infant’s injuries, if she deliberately injured the child in any way or if she ever lost her temper and injured the child. Lunceford answered “no” to all three questions, according to the Sprayberry.