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GOLDEN, Colo. (CN) — A former forensic scientist for the Colorado Bureau of Investigation pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to more than 100 charges related to falsification of DNA results during her 29-year career with the state.
In January 2025, the First Judicial District Attorney’s Office filed 102 criminal charges against former CBI forensic scientist Yvonne Woods, including cybercrime, perjury, forgery and attempt to influence a public servant.
Woods worked for the state agency from 1994 to 2023, during which investigators found dozens of lab results that appeared forged, according prosecutors.
“The review did not find that Woods falsified DNA matches or otherwise fabricated DNA profiles,” a spokesperson said in a release for CBI. “She instead deviated from standard testing protocols and cut corners, calling into question the reliability of the testing she conducted.”
A CBI intern noticed discrepancies in Woods’ samples in 2023, while “reviewing quantification data in vestibular swabs within historical sexual assault cases,” a spokesperson for the agency said in a release.
According to an internal review, Woods mishandled 30 sexual assault cases in which prosecutors claim Woods reported “no male DNA found,” when the data indicated DNA had been found or that the sample should have been retested.
Management soon identified other missing quality control data in other cases Woods worked on. Although Woods didn’t invent results, the missing data cast doubt on the DNA results in more than 1,000 criminal cases.
So far, Woods’ work has been used to question two convictions, including the 2012 murder conviction of Michael Clark for the 1994 murder of Marty Grisham, reports say.
And after the Court of Appeals vacated the 2022 murder conviction for Juan Manuel Castorena, his attorneys sought information on Woods’ involvement in his case, sending the question of how to obtain cross-judicial-district information up to the state Supreme Court, per Colorado Politics.
The district attorney’s office estimated the government spent $11 million investigating and correcting Woods’ work, which impacted dozens of Colorado counties.
With arraignment occurring more than a year after prosecutors first filed charges against Woods, First Judicial District Judge Andrew Poland scheduled a 5-week trial stretching from September to October.
Daren Kafka, chief deputy district attorney for the First Judicial District, represented the people.
Woods is represented by attorneys Lindsay Brown and Tom Ward.
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