GOLDEN — Former Colorado Bureau of Investigation scientist Yvonne “Missy” Woods was out of state Tuesday when charges were filed against her in a sweeping DNA testing scandal, but she bought a plane ticket back within an hour, then drove straight from the airport to jail, her attorney said in court Thursday.
Jefferson County Court Judge Graham Peper reduced Woods’ $50,000 cash-only bail to allow for a surety bond during a brief court hearing Thursday, which means Woods can use a bail-bond company and will not need to pay the full $50,000 to be released from jail.
The judge cited Woods’ extensive efforts to quickly turn herself in on the 102 felony charges as justification for the change. He declined to issue the personal recognizance bond that Woods sought due to the seriousness of the accusations against her.
“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,” he said.
Woods was charged Tuesday with 102 felony counts in connection with longstanding and widespread manipulation, deletion and alteration of DNA testing data during her 29-year career with the CBI. She is accused of criminally altering data in at least 58 cases, and is charged with 52 counts of forgery of a government-issued document, 48 counts of attempting to influence a public servant, a single count of perjury and a single count of committing a cybercrime.
The most serious charge is the cybercrime count, which alleges she altered, damaged or interrupted data in a computer system in such a way as to cause more than $1 million in damages. That charge is a class 2 felony, which typically carries between eight and 24 years in prison.
Woods appeared virtually from jail for her first appearance Thursday and did not speak. She was represented by Lindsay Brown, who said she recently took over the case. Prosecutor Darren Kafka did not object to the reduced bail. He asked that Woods be required to turn in her passport, which the judge later ordered.
Woods retired from the CBI in lieu of termination in late 2023 after the agency discovered widespread problems in her work. She 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.
She is charged with crimes in just a sliver of those 1,0003 cases. The charges were filed after a year-long criminal investigation that followed the CBI’s internal investigation.
The CBI allowed Woods to stay on the job despite repeated concerns about the quality and reliability of her work over at least a decade and failed to seriously investigate several warnings about her professional conduct, the internal affairs report found. She had a reputation among her colleagues for cutting corners in order to be a high producer in the agency, yet was trusted with the CBI’s most high-profile cases.
The data manipulation has sent shockwaves through Colorado’s criminal justice system. Prosecutors can no longer rely on her work, and defense attorneys worry that defendants were wrongly convicted based on falsified evidence.
This month, prosecutors in Douglas County offered a lesser charge and prison sentence to a man accused in the 1985 killing of Roger Dean, 51, because it was possible the DNA data in his case had been manipulated or altered by Woods.
Dean’s daughter, Tamara Dean Harney, attended Woods’ hearing Thursday.
“Missy Woods has just affected so many victims and victims’ families that I wanted to be there in person to see her held accountable,” Harney said. “…I’m so frustrated and angry with how the criminal justice system has worked around this.”
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