Colorado DNA crime analyst due in court to face forgery and other charges
Share:
A former Colorado Bureau of Investigation DNA scientist faces 102 criminal charges, including dozens of counts of forgery, after authorities said she cut corners and didn't follow standard testing protocols in hundreds of criminal cases. Yvonne “Missy” Woods was due to make an initial appearance Thursday in state district court in Jefferson County. She retired in November 2023 after working at the state's forensic lab for 29 years.
The validity of more than 500 cases has been called into question as a result of her altering data, according to an arrest warrant affidavit released by prosecutors. Woods was being held Wednesday in the Jefferson County Jail on a $50,000 cash bond. An attorney for Woods did not immediately respond to a telephone message seeking comment.
The investigation into her alleged misconduct began in September 2023 after an intern at the state investigation bureau discovered missing information in a case that Woods handled in 2018. The subsequent probe into other cases she had worked found Woods altered data to conceal tampering, deleted data that showed she failed to troubleshoot issues within the testing process and did not thoroughly document tests performed in case records, authorities said.
In addition to 52 counts of forgery, she faces 48 counts of attempting to influence a public servant and one count each of perjury and cybercrime, for alleged misconduct between 2008 and 2023. A Colorado Bureau of Investigations internal affairs report released last year revealed that concerns about Woods’ work first surfaced more than a decade ago. In 2014, a worker questioned her testing of evidence and in 2018 she was temporarily removed from working on DNA cases after being accused of data manipulation, the report said.
