Former Colorado Bureau of Investigation forensic scientist, Yvonne “Missy” Woods, charged with the mishandling of DNA evidence dating back to 2008, pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to 102 felony charges.
People supporting Woods at the courthouse greeted her before the arraignment. Woods and her attorneys entered the courtroom one minute after the judge had called the court to order.
Her plea comes more than one year after she was first charged and over two years since anomalies in her work were first reported. CBI estimates her alleged misconduct impacted more than one thousand cases.
The charges she faces are: Woods pleaded not guilty to 48 counts of attempting to influence a public servant, 52 counts of forgery of a government-issued document, one count of perjury, and one count of cybercrime.
Woods, 65, was put on administrative leave in October 2023 and retired the following month after 29 years with the CBI.
At the hearing at the Jefferson County Courthouse on Wednesday afternoon, Judge Andrew Poland said the trial would take five weeks and set a start date for Sept. 24.
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The alleged misconduct has resulted in backlogs for DNA test turnaround times for CBI, as the agency has taken on the re-testing of evidence in thousands of cases.
Because of the charges Woods faces for DNA mishandling, some previously convicted people have been released and now await new trials. It’s also led to an influx of defendants filing motions in their cases — even ones where she wasn’t accused of misconduct in, because people are doubting the state’s lab, said Michael Dougherty, the district attorney for the 20th Judicial District.
“I'm looking forward to the criminal justice system going through the process with her case,” Dougherty said hours before the arraignment. “Her misconduct was absolutely outrageous and unacceptable, and a miscarriage of justice in so many cases, and in Boulder County, we’re continuing to see the ripple effects of that.
Tamara Dean Harney attended the arraignment with her husband. Harney’s father was killed more than 40 years ago in a cold case that had remained unsolved until recently. When information about Woods came out, Harney agreed to a plea deal for the killer, putting him in prison for 32 years instead of risking taking it to trial.
When Harney left the courtroom, she was not too far from the woman whom she says was the cause of injustice in her father’s case.
“We were wondering if we’d end up in the same elevator,” she said. “I wanted to say something, I knew it wasn’t appropriate, but I wanted to.”
“It’s the first time that I’ve actually kind of come face to face with her. And that hit me a little bit harder than I actually thought it would,” she said. “I knew she was out on bail, I hadn’t considered she’ll be out on bail for the whole length of the trial, and then probably even until sentencing rolls around. So she’s going to continue to live her life, and that is hard to swallow.”
Harney said she’s not surprised by Woods’ plea, and expects to keep following the case.
“It would be great if she just pled guilty,” Harney said. “She’s affected not only my life, but so many people’s lives. She needs to pay for that. She needs to go to prison and serve a lot of years, if not for the rest of her life.”
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