The legal defense for a Colorado DNA analyst, whose allegedly subpar work has put hundreds of convictions at stake over a 15-year span, requested a postponement of her arraignment to review over 45,000 files of discovery.
Forensic scientist Yvonne ‘Missy’ Woods, affiliated with the Colorado Bureau of Investigation for 29 years, is facing 102 charges linked to 58 incidents of purported criminal misconduct from 2008 to 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.
Woods’ issues came to light when an intern identified discrepancies in 2023; a subsequent investigation swiftly uncovered numerous similar errors, according to First Judicial District Attorney Alexis King’s statement released earlier this year when the charges were announced.
Woods was placed on leave in October 2023 and resigned the following month.
Following these revelations, one murder conviction was overturned due to flawed DNA evidence attributed to Woods. Additionally, at least one Colorado law firm is actively seeking clients and has initiated a lawsuit against Woods and the CBI.
The Colorado Bureau of Investigation reported in April that 1,022 cases have been identified as impacted, including 472 involving sexual assault, 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.
The defense team has requested to delay her arraignment to late October, already dealing with a vast amount of discovery files, totaling over 41,000, including zip files that may contain even more documents, according to Ward.
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.’
