Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) official and Emory University alum Kimberly Quinlan Lindsey (’98G), 44, was arrested and charged with two counts of child molestation and one count of bestiality.

Lindsey was arrested on Sunday, Oct. 9 along with her boyfriend Thomas Westerman, who is also employed by the CDC as a night watchman. Lindsey, who holds a Ph.D. in Immunology Molecular Pathogenesis from Emory, was the deputy director for the Laboratory Science Policy and Practice Program Office at the CDC at the time of her arrest.

The arrest comes after allegations that Lindsey and Westerman, who live together in Decatur, molested a 6-year-old boy between Jan. 1, 2010 and Aug. 22, 2011, according to an Oct. 11 article on CNN.com.

“The bestiality charge is a result of evidence recovered during the investigation,” DeKalb County police Lt. Pamela Kunz said in an Oct. 11 article in The Huffington Post.

According to the article, during the six-week investigation into the alleged molestation incidents, investigators discovered photographs of Lindsey performing sexual acts on two pets, actions which were independent of and unrelated to the instances of child molestation.

In an Oct. 10 report by WSB-TV Channel 2, investigators said that Westerman allowed the six-year-old to spank a nude Lindsey and use an electric sex toy on her.

Though it is not clear what the couple’s relationship is with the six-year-old child, DeKalb County District Attorney Robert James told WSB-TV that in child abuse cases, “[the abuser is] typically someone that the child knows.”

Police were first notified Aug. 24 of the instances of child molestation by a medical professional, according to Kunz, as reported in an Oct. 11 article in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Lindsey, who began her work at the CDC as a senior scientist in 1999, has received 12 awards for outstanding performance, according to her biography on Emory’s Biological and Biomedical Sciences website.

According to his LinkedIn profile, Westerman was a watch officer from Nov. 2009 to Nov. 2010, and since Aug. 2011, he has been a resources management specialist.

Currently, Westerman is out on bail, while Lindsey remains behind bars with a $20,000 bail, Kunz told CNN. Neither Lindsey nor Westerman have released a public statement.

The CDC has maintained that its policy is to refrain from commenting on personnel cases. The DeKalb County Police Department and the Laney Graduate School could not be reached for comment.

— Contact Alice Chen.