The defense team for a Colorado DNA analyst whose alleged shoddy work jeopardized hundreds of convictions over 15 years on Monday asked to delay her arraignment – to go through more than 45,000 files of discovery.
Forensic scientist Yvonne ‘Missy’ Woods, who worked for the Colorado Bureau of Investigation for 29 years, was charged in January with 102 counts related to 58 instances of alleged criminal misconduct committed between 2008 and 2023.
The charges include cybercrime, perjury in the first degree, attempt to influence a public servant and forgery. She has not yet entered a plea.
Problems with Woods’ work were first discovered by an intern in 2023; a subsequent investigation ‘quickly discovered a number of similar discrepancies,’ First Judicial District Attorney Alexis King said in a statement announcing the charges earlier this year.
Woods was placed on leave in October 2023 and resigned the following month.
One murder conviction has already been vacated after DNA findings from Woods were determined to be flawed. At least one Colorado law firm is lobbying for plaintiffs and has filed notice of a lawsuit against Woods and CBI.
CBI updated the number of identified impacted cases to 1,022 in April. The total included 472 sex assault cases, 211 burglaries, 58 assaults, 47 robberies and 19 kidnappings.
Woods appeared in Jefferson County Court on Monday wearing a blue dress alongside defense attorneys Lindsay Brown and Tom Ward.
They requested a continuance of her arraignment to late October – because they’ve already received more than 41,000 files of discovery to go through, including zip files that could contain further thousands, Ward said.
Yvonne ‘Missy’ Woods Woods, a 29-year-veteran and considered the state’s ‘gold standard’ by colleagues for helping to put infamous murdered behind bars. She is pictured pointing to a DNA chart during Diego Olmos Alcalde’s trial on Monday June 22, 2009
‘Just this morning, we got disclosure of another 5,000 pages,’ he added.
The prosecution agreed, calling Woods’ case an ‘exceptional circumstance.’
The forensic scientist is accused of ‘altering and/or deleting data related to critical parts of the quality control process,’ the DA announced in January.
CBI invited in the South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation (SDDCI), who launched year-long investigation into Woods’ work.
If found ‘evidence of instances where Woods altered and deleted quantification values, re-ran entire batches of DNA multiple times without any documentation and concealed possible contamination,’ the DA’s statement continued.
Woods, pictured in May 2009, was placed on leave from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation in October 2023 and resigned the following month. She was charged in January and has not yet entered a plea
‘Additionally, the affidavit alleges that in over 30 sexual assault cases, Woods deleted specific values in samples and submitted reports to agencies that reflected, “No Male DNA Found,” when in fact small amounts of male DNA were present and/or possible contamination was present and additional troubleshooting and retesting was required,’ the DA said.
Through the end of 2024, the CBI estimated that the fiscal costs due to Woods’ alleged misconduct was $11,071,486.
In its internal affairs investigation report published in 2024, CBI found that Woods’ work had been questioned by a coworker in 2014, who reported ‘concerns’ to a ‘technical leader.’
She’d also been accused of ‘data manipulation’ in 2018, when she was removed from casework and given other duties during a a review – after which she was reinstated, it continued.
CBI has since said that ‘policy changes have already been implemented to address the specific vulnerabilities exploited by Woods.’
