Colorado Bureau of Investigation Admits Over 1,000 Cases Affected by DNA Test Misconduct
by James Mills
The Colorado Bureau of Investigation (“CBI”) announced that more than 1,000 cases could be affected by the systematic deletion and falsification of data by forensic scientist Yvonne “Missy” Woods.
Woods was apparently allowed to work under a cloud of suspicion for quite some time. In 2014, a coworker formally reported concerns about her work to a team leader, and in 2018, Woods was formally accused of manipulating data. She was reinstated after a months-long administrative leave.
According to the Colorado ACLU and the Korey Wise Innocence Project, the CBI lab that employed Woods was noncompliant with federal regulations for many years, which allowed this kind of systemic manipulation and misreporting to occur. While an independent audit has been initiated, the audit will only focus on the period from 2022 to 2024 and will be reported directly to CBI executives, possibly compromising its independence and transparency, according to critics.
Woods worked for the CBI for 29 years, testing samples and logging the results into reports that were then used by various members of the state criminal justice system. As the allegations about testing errors and anomalies piled-up, she faced mounting internal scrutiny and left the agency in November 2023.
Shortly thereafter, a CBI-initiated investigation (begun in September of that year) announced its preliminary conclusions: Woods had been tampering with DNA tests by omitting and deleting certain results and had misreported material facts used in multiple criminal investigations. These were violations of the CBI laboratory procedures and their official Code of Conduct. Her actions are being investigated as potential crimes.
On December 17, 2024, the CBI announced that “the comprehensive review of all the cases involving the nearly 30-year career of Woods has been completed” and that, at this point, 1,003 cases have been impacted. This opens the door to potential legal challenges by the affected defendants and the necessity of retesting many of these samples, where that’s even possible.
Perhaps more seriously, the CBI will have to review its procedures and internal safeguards in order to determine how such misconduct went on for so long. As CBI Director Chris Schaefer conceded publicly, “we acknowledge that it took too long to detect ongoing intentional manipulation of our Lab system.”
Sources: cbi.colorado.gov; denver7.com
As a digital subscriber to Criminal Legal News, you can access full text and downloads for this and other premium content.
Already a subscriber? Login
