Missy Woods, DNA analyst in CBI scandal, charged with 102 offences

A longtime Colorado Bureau of Investigation scientist who mishandled DNA testing in hundreds of criminal cases was charged with 102 felonies this week, the latest twist in a years-long scandal that has rocked Colorado’s justice system and cost the state more than $11 million.

Yvonne “Missy” Woods, 64, was charged Tuesday with 52 counts of forging a government-issued document, 48 counts of attempting to influence a public servant, one count of perjury and one count of committing a cybercrime, court records show.

The most serious charge is the cybercrime charge, which alleges that she altered, damaged or interrupted data in a computer system in such a way that it caused more than $1 million in damages. That charge is a Class 2 felony, which typically carries between eight and 24 years in prison.

Woods turned herself in to the Jefferson County Jail Wednesday afternoon, where she remained in custody on a $50,000 bond. She is scheduled to appear in court Thursday morning; it was not immediately clear if she had an attorney.

She is no longer represented by attorney Ryan Brackley, who recently joined the 18th Judicial District Attorney’s Office. He has previously said she had never reported false DNA matches.

Woods retired from the CBI in lieu of termination at the end of 2023 after the agency discovered widespread problems in her work. She has deleted, omitted or manipulated DNA data in at least 1,003 criminal cases during her 29-year career, the CBI found in an internal investigation.

Woods’ misconduct is expected to reverberate across Colorado’s legal system for years and cost millions of dollars to resolve. The CBI estimates that Woods’ misconduct has already cost the agency more than $11 million, a figure that includes state funds set aside to pay for retesting and reimbursement of district attorneys, according to the statement.

“The fact that Missy Woods has been charged is a significant event, but from the perspective of the Office of the State Public Defender, it will do nothing to sort out, investigate and resolve how the clients in the cases she worked on are affected ,” said James Karbach, a spokesman for the office. “There still needs to be transparency — and redress — if clients’ cases have been mishandled.”

The Colorado Office of the State Public Defender is requesting $2 million to process wrongful conviction claims and is seeking legislation this year to ensure that defendants in cases involving Woods receive notice and help with the legal process, he added.

The CBI allowed Woods to remain on the job despite repeated concerns about the quality and reliability of her work for at least a decade and failed to seriously investigate numerous warnings about her professional conduct, the internal affairs report found. She had a reputation among her colleagues for cutting corners to be a high producer in the agency, but she was trusted with the CBI’s most high-profile cases.

A 35-page affidavit filed against her in the criminal case largely echoes the findings of the CBI’s internal investigation, which found Woods took unethical — and now allegedly criminal — shortcuts to work faster, produce more cases and avoid time-consuming but mandatory due diligence.

She told criminal investigators she deleted the data for “expediency” because it moved cases along — so she could work seven cases a day instead of five, she said, according to the affidavit.

The affidavit lists 58 separate criminal cases between 2008 and 2023 in which Woods manipulated data, including 38 sexual assault cases, six murders, two robberies and a variety of other cases ranging from missing persons to a vehicular assault. The cases spanned the state.

Investigators reviewed about 500 of Woods’ cases dating back to 2014, and prosecutors filed charges only in those cases where they believe Woods’ misconduct rose to the level of a felony, said Brionna Boatright, a spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office.

The perjury charge appears to be connected to a 2013 Lakewood homicide case in which Woods altered DNA data and then gave false testimony at trial, claiming her reports reflected all the tests she had performed when they did not, according to the affidavit.

The cybercrime charge reflects a broader pattern of conduct across multiple cases, court records show.

The majority of cases that resulted in criminal charges were sexual assaults.

Woods told internal investigators that she deleted data on low amounts of male DNA in some sexual-assault cases so she would not have to run additional tests that were unlikely to yield conclusive results on those small genetic samples. She deleted the data in sexual assault cases “because it was easy,” she said, according to an internal report.

She admitted at the time that she may have wanted to avoid questions from defense attorneys about why no further testing was done on the deleted samples.

The criminal charges follow a year-long investigation by the South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation. Investigators turned their findings over to Jefferson County District Attorney Alexis King on Dec. 23. She sought additional information from the CBI, which she received on January 15, the office said in a press release.

Woods’ misconduct has already reverberated in court.