Child abuse suspect takes polygraph, denies allegations
Published 10:57 am Thursday, February 27, 2014
By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor
A 25-year-old Alabaster woman facing a felony charge of aggravated child abuse has denied causing any injuries to her infant child, and has requested supervised visitation with the child, according to documents filed in Shelby County Circuit Court.
The Alabaster Police Department arrested Caitlin Gregory Lunceford, whose address was listed in the 500 block of Windsor Court in Alabaster, on Jan. 23 and charged her with one count of aggravated child abuse, a Class B felony.
According to her arrest warrant, Lunceford allegedly did “strike and/or shake” the victim, who was about 2 months old and in her care at the time of the incident. The warrant claimed Lunceford caused “brain damage” to the infant.
In a motion filed in court on Feb. 25, Lunceford requested 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.
Along with the order requesting supervised visitation, Lunceford’s attorneys, Barry and Lara McCauley Alvis, also filed the results of a polygraph test Lunceford took on Feb. 19 with 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.
“In the present case … evaluation of the test charts determined that deception was not attempted to the relevant questions,” Sprayberry wrote. “In my opinion, Ms. Lunceford answered the questions truthfully.”
In the motion seeking supervised visitation, Lunceford’s attorneys wrote, “If this mother is innocent of said crime, it would be an injustice to inflict lasting emotional harm on this 3-month-old child that could never be repaired.”
As of Feb. 27, Circuit Court Judge Dan Reeves had not ruled on the request for supervised visitation. The case was scheduled for a preliminary hearing on April 2 at 8:30 a.m. at the Shelby County Courthouse.