A Colorado crime lab analyst faces more than 100 criminal charges in connection with allegations that she altered reports in sexual assault cases.
Yvonne “Missy” Woods was charged with 52 counts of forgery, 48 counts of attempting to influence a public servant, one count of first-degree perjury and one count of cybercrime, according to the First Judicial District Attorney. Woods is accused of altering and deleting quantification values, reprocessing DNA batches without documentation, and concealing possible contamination.
She is alleged to have filed reports stating “No male DNA found” in more than 30 sexual assault cases in which DNA was found or contamination was present.
Jail records show Woods was in custody Thursday morning. An attorney who was named in an affidavit for Woods’ arrest warrant did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment.
In November 2023, Colorado authorities asked the South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation to investigate Woods’ work, according to the affidavit. He worked at the Colorado Bureau of Investigation from January 1994 until his retirement in November 2023.
According to the affidavit, an intern with the Colorado Bureau of Investigation discovered an error two months before the application. The intern, who was not identified, was assigned a project to review quantification data and alerted lab management that specific data appeared to be missing, according to the affidavit.
An internal investigation was launched that reviewed all of Woods’ cases and found several instances of deleted or altered data, according to the affidavit.
In a recorded interview, Woods was asked about his work at the lab and how contaminated DNA samples were handled. Woods told investigators that before 2017 or 2018, some contamination was accepted, according to the affidavit.
But since then, he reportedly said, any contamination would need to be addressed, and he agreed with investigators that it would take a “considerable amount of time” to reanalyze the DNA batches. During the interview, Woods was asked about discrepancies in her work, including once she was placed on leave in 2018 over concerns of manipulated or altered data, according to the affidavit.
Woods allegedly said during the interview that he did not know if similar cases of manipulated data were all intentional and could not give a timeline for when he allegedly began altering the data.
“They asked her what the benefit would be of deleting or manipulating data and she quickly responded, ‘Being able to report the case,’” the affidavit says.
At one point, according to the affidavit, Woods was asked if she deleted the data “simply to move specific cases forward quickly, to avoid having to do additional work, and she agreed.”
More than 500 cases were affected by Woods’ inaccurate reporting starting in 2008, according to the affidavit. Those cases are now “in doubt” due to alleged data manipulation.
The district attorney’s office said the financial cost of Woods’ alleged misconduct totaled more than $11 million.
A Wisconsin-based company was hired to review the office’s policies and procedures in the aftermath and provide solutions for any potential improvements, according to NBC affiliate KUSA. The company received a $770,000 contract, the station said.
