The former Colorado Bureau of Investigation forensic scientist at the center of a DNA scandal that has rocked the state’s judicial system appeared remotely from jail for her first court proceeding in Jefferson County on Thursday as the defense and prosecution wrangled over her bond.
Yvonne Woods turned herself into Jefferson County authorities on Wednesday. She was booked into jail on a 102-count felony indictment and spent the night there.
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An arrest warrant for Woods was issued Tuesday and her defense attorney, Lindsay Brown said at the hearing that her client was out of state but immediately flew to Colorado and went directly from the airport to the jail on Wednesday.
“She has been cooperative,” Brown said, adding she was “low-risk” and should be released without bond.
But Senior Deputy District Attorney Darren Kafka argued that releasing her without bond was unacceptable given the breadth and seriousness of the charges.
At the end of the brief hearing, Judge Graham Peper adjusted the original $50,000 cash-only bond to allow a $50,000 surety bond, which permits a third party to guarantee Woods’ future appearances.
Peper appeared to agree with the prosecution about the seriousness of a case, saying, “This gets to the heart of whether or not science can be trusted, whether or not law enforcement can be trusted and, quite frankly, whether the judicial system can be trusted.”
Woods was ordered to turn in her passport.
After the hearing concluded, the daughter of a victim in a case that Woods handled said she is angry and frustrated as she has learned about Woods’ manipulation of data in criminal cases. “She did not consider what she was doing to all of us, said Tamara Harney.
Harney’s father, Roger Dean, was killed during a botched robbery at his Lone Tree home in November 1985. Dean’s case had gone cold until Woods analysis of DNA found on a ski mask led to the arrest of William Jefferson, who had been held in Douglas County jail county since 2021. Jefferson had faced life in prison on a first-degree murder charge, but District Attorney George Brauchler said last week he felt he had no choice but to offer Jefferson a reduced sentence of 32 years on a single count of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, rather than take the case to trial.
On Thursday she told reporters she felt she needed to come to the hearing and had hoped to see Woods in person but was disappointed when she only appeared on a screen.
In the 35-page indictment, Woods — who goes by Missy — faces felony charges that include attempt to influence a public servant, perjury, forgery and cybercrime, according to court documents.
The former forensic DNA analyst has been at the center of the massive scandal after it was disclosed in November 2023 that the once go-to scientist had deleted data, skipped steps and manipulated DNA evidence in more than 1,000 instances over her nearly three-decade career.
There has long been speculation that Woods could face criminal charges as the scandal unfolded over the past year, but it was unclear until now what those charges would be. The South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation reviewed her case for more than a year to determine what, if any, criminal charges were involved.
Still, the ongoing judicial crisis has thrown the fate of an undetermined number of criminal cases into limbo, infuriating both prosecutors and defense attorneys alike. Legal experts have said it could take years to untangle the fall-out.
Not only is there deep concern that defendants may have been wrongfully imprisoned based on her DNA conclusions and testimony, but also prosecutors in at least three cases so far have said they felt forced to offer reduced charges and lighter sentences to murder suspects once headed for trial, including the Dean case.
The scandal that has enveloped CBI had roots stretching back decades and included warning signs that were dismissed.
It finally came to light in the fall of 2023 after an intern in the lab became concern about Woods’ work. She reported it to lab management and a massive investigation followed that involved a re-examination of more than 10,000 cases Woods had worked on during her 29-year career there.
CBI has said it found 1,003 “anomalies,” or irregularities in her work dating back to 1994.The embattled agency, though, has continued to say that its internal investigation did not show that she had ever falsified DNA matches or fabricated profiles.
She was allowed to retire in November 2023, rather than be fired just before CBI went public with the scandal.
On Thursday, a CBI spokesperson had no comment and referred all questions to the District Attorney’s office in Jefferson County.
During her time at CBI, Woods rose to become one of the state’s most respected DNA scientists, often tapped to extract small amounts of genetic material for testing in long unsolved cases. She testified about her findings in such cases in hundreds of cases through the years, CBI has said.
She began her career in forensic analysis in 1988 in Wyoming, where she worked for five years, and then moved briefly to work for the Dallas County, Texas Crime Lab. She joined CBI in 1994 specializing in blood, hair, and fiber examination and crime scene investigations before shifting her focus to DNA analysis., according to the indictment and other documents.
In both 2014 and 2018, her work was called into question when colleagues reported irregularities to lab supervisors, but the public and law enforcement was never informed.
In 2018, according to the indictment and CBI’s internal investigation report, she was questioned by the lab for manipulating and altering data. When confronted, she said, “It was a rush batch and I was trying to get the data out and that’s how it happened.”
She was then asked why the data deletions appeared to be intentional. She replied, “You’re probably right,” and she also said, “I don’t have a reason, and I don’t especially have a good reason.” When asked when she began deleting data, she told investigators she did not know.
However, she admitted, if such deletions occurred only a few times, it was probably accidental; if more, it could be considered intentional. She also admitted that she had deleted data to “simply move specific cases forward quickly to avoid having to do additional work,” according to both the indictment and the transcript of her questioning which The Denver Gazette obtained.
Woods was temporarily relieved of her duties in 2018 after she admitted wrongdoing, sent for mental health counseling. She was soon cleared to return to duty.
The 58 instances of criminal misconduct cited in the indictment involved cases of robberies, homicides and sexual assaults, where she is alleged to have changed or deleted data in her computerized workbook.
For instance, in a Wheat Ridge homicide, the indictment said she changed the value of a sample batch to “undetermined,” failing to re-analyze the batch for possible contamination and then failing to report it.
In a Lakewood homicide, she is accused of altering data in her workbook and falsely said a DNA profile was not obtained. Although she later amended her report to correct spelling errors, she did not correct the conclusion, the indictment said. Later at trial, the indictment said she gave false testimony about her findings.
In case after case spelled out in the indictment, she is accused of altering findings, mislabeling testing, and failing to correct, troubleshoot, or report problems if possible contamination occurred.
In several cases, she failed to follow through with needed additional steps or simply said DNA was not found, the indictment said. That is what allegedly occurred in a sexual assault case in Rocky Mountain National Park, where she is accused of deleting data that concealed possible contamination and falsely reported that male DNA was not detected.
CBI has maintained throughout that her alleged misconduct in the lab, while damaging, is not expected to change the ultimate outcome in criminal cases in which she was involved and that exonerations of those sent to prison based on her results are unlikely.
Others are less sure. In the year since the scandal broke, the fall out is being felt.
CBI acknowledged earlier this month that the backlog for testing evidence in rape cases has nearly doubled to more than 500 days because lab workers have been diverted to re-examine Woods’ work.
And so far, three murder cases headed once headed for trial dissolved into plea deals, where defendants were offered lesser charges and lighter sentences from prosecutors who acknowledged it was too risky to proceed because Woods had worked on the cases.
There has also been at least one case where someone convicted and now in prison have asked that the case be reopened in light of the scandal.
Christopher Osher contributed reporting to this story.
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