AUBURN – The second trial for a Lisbon woman accused of shaking her son to death has been postponed for a few months at the request of the defense attorney.

Charged with manslaughter in connection with the death of her 21-month-old son, Sarah Allen was scheduled to go to trial next Tuesday.

But her case was delayed after her attorney, Verne Paradie, asked for more time to gather medical evidence.

Paradie said Tuesday that he asked for a continuance after one of his expert witnesses, a neuropathologist from Brown University, told him that she needed more time to test samples of the boy’s brain with newly discovered techniques.

Dr. Suzanne de la Monte testified at Allen’s first trial in June. That trial ended without a verdict because the jury was unable to reach a unanimous decision.

Some of the jurors later reported that only one juror wanted to acquit Allen, and that juror seemed most convinced by de la Monte’s testimony.

The Rhode Island neuropathologist testified on the last day of the trial that her study of Nathaniel Allen’s brain did not reveal any of the torn neurons expected in a shaking incident. She suggested that the boy could have had an undiagnosed brain disorder.

Sarah Allen and her husband, Jeremy, adopted their son from Guatemala in April 2002. The boy died the following February.

The state alleges that Sarah Allen shook the boy with so much force that she caused him to suffer a severe brain injury. All of the doctors who treated the boy testified at the first trial that the most likely cause of death was a violent shaking or jerking motion.

In preparation for the second trial, Paradie is also trying to get new information about Nathaniel’s birth and first year in Guatemala.

With help from an attorney in Guatemala, Paradie is attempting to get statements from the boy’s birth mother, the doctors who treated her and the foster parents who cared for the boy before the Allens took him to their home in Lisbon Falls.

Allen’s second trial is now tentatively scheduled for February.