She later said: "I don't know any of these people" and had no reason to manipulate one sample over another."
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PASSAGE TWO OF THE DAY: "A Boulder triple murder trial set to begin in July could be in jeopardy because of DNA work performed by Woods. Attorneys for Garrett Coughlin, accused in the April 2017 shooting of Kelly Sloat-White, her husband Lance and his brother Lee Fraker in Coal Creek Canyon, are asking for his case to be dismissed after what they alleged to be ten years of secrecy. During the triple murder investigation, Woods found DNA from four people, including “strong support” of Coughlin’s DNA, on a chair leg at the crime scene. She also found “very strong support” that Coughlin’s DNA profile was one of four samples found on the holster to the murder weapon. But, according to Coughlin's attorney Mary Claire Mulligan, in Woods’ report, she deleted the reference to a male DNA sample found in Sloat-White’s bodily fluids. “Why she did this is remains a mystery to Mr. Coughlin,” Mulligan's motion noted."
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SUB-HEADING: "State crime lab debacle had earlier warnings of misconduct from "golden child" DNA scientist."
SUB-HEADING: "Anomalies in cases go back at least 10 years, a Colorado Bureau of Investigation internal affairs report shows."
PHOTO CAPTION: "It's unknown how anomalies allegedly found in the work of 29-year CBI DNA veteran scientist Yvonne "Missy" Woods will affect Colorado's judicial system. The 94-page internal affairs investigation file shows anomalies in her work dating back 10 years. "
GIST: "State crime lab employees for years repeatedly tried to warn their superiors at the Colorado Bureau of Investigation that Yvonne “Missy” Woods had become a rogue employee who was cutting corners. But officials failed to respond forcefully until last year, when an intern at the lab found new anomalies, an internal affairs investigation found.
The Colorado Bureau of Investigation previously has blocked public release of the 94-page report, which shows that concerns about Woods’ DNA work on criminal cases became so serious that, in 2018, her bosses forced her to seek professional counseling and suspended her from working on criminal cases.
The Denver Gazette obtained a copy of the report after 20th Judicial District Court Judge Patrick Butler unsealed it.
The internal affairs report discloses a series of events over years, in which Woods’ CBI colleagues reported to their superiors that Woods was mishandling or manipulating evidence, primarily male DNA results being used in criminal trials. And yet she was allowed by her CBI superiors to remain in her key laboratory role, eventually placing more than 1,000 criminal cases in doubt.
In one incident, a colleague said she saw Woods throwing away physical evidence — fingernail clippings — that the colleague believed had been gathered as part of a criminal case case. The colleague said she didn't report that incident because she believed Woods had favored status at the agency. Top supervisors told internal affairs investigators they now believe agency officials should have done more to protect the public.
CBI officials said the agency has initiated additional investigation into how the agency responded to a report of an earlier 2018 manipulation of DNA data by Woods, noting that the CBI director never was informed of the manipulation or the leadership at the Colorado Department of Public Safety.
“Following the discovery of Woods’ actions in manipulating DNA analysis data in 2023, CBI is meticulously reviewing all of its testing protocols,” said CBI Director Chris Schaefer in a prepared statement. “Not only is Woods’ caseload being reviewed, but we are auditing the results of all current and previous DNA scientists to ensure the integrity of the lab.”
Schaefer also acknowledged "that it took too long to detect ongoing intentional manipulation of our lab system" and said the agency will hire an external vendor to "conduct an organizational review."
The report states that Woods told investigators, “I’ve been overwhelmed a long time” after she was confronted again when new anomalies in her work surfaced in 2023. After that discovery, she told a CBI assistant director she was burned out from working up to 40 hours of overtime a month to make more money as a single mother to put her child through school.
She said she hadn’t thought about her actions while she was doing them. Only after an intern reported her in 2023 and she was confronted by her superiors did the impact of what she had done set in. She was confronted after the intern reported finding technical data had been deleted that should not have been deleted in 30 cases, according to the report.
Woods told the assistant that she left work after being confronted about the anomalies and began to realize the impact of her actions, causing five sleepless nights.
“I went excuse me, but f**k. What I have done? With, with, with the, with the male DNA thing,” according to a transcript of the interview with Woods included in the report.
CBI noted that in multiple cases, Woods manipulated forensic results specifically regarding male DNA, either by deleting chart results, which should have showed male DNA, ignoring male DNA that was present in a sample or incorrectly reporting that there was none. They were results that a DNA Lab Program Manager acknowledged "were intentional manipulation and alteration of data."
Deleting data, the lab manager noted, "increases the number of cases the scientist can work on because they are not spending time troubleshooting," according to the internal affairs report.
When asked about the deletions in her interview, Woods told investigators: "The explanation is basically exactly what you indicated. Um, on the deletion of the male DNA, I can't tell you what my mind thought was. It sure wasn't a thought, sure wasn't a ... clear thought. I mean I know the implications of that."
She later said: "I don't know any of these people" and had no reason to manipulate one sample over another.
Woods, a 29-year veteran of the state crime lab, was placed on administrative leave on Oct. 3, 2023, after additional anomalies were discovered in her DNA work on criminal cases. She was forced to retire from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation on Nov. 6, 2023. State officials have said anomalies and potential deception in her work have placed "all of her" work in question, casting a potential cloud over more than 1,000 criminal convictions.
Though defense lawyers are pushing numerous legal challenges based on Woods' past DNA case work, her attorney, Ryan Brackley, has denied that Woods has been involved in any wrongful convictions.
"This report highlights certain issues and concerns that were allegedly brought to the attention of the Colorado Bureau of investigation DNA lab management as early as 2014, then again in 2018," said Brackley.
He went on to say that Woods for the last 10 years was CBI's hardest-working and relied-upon DNA scientist and "was continuously tapped to work on Colorado’s most important, complicated and highest profile cases."
"While the allegations resulting from the internal investigation point to Ms. Woods deviating from standard protocols and cutting corners in her work, she has long maintained that she’s never created or falsely reported any inculpatory DNA matches or exclusions, nor has she testified falsely in any hearing or trial resulting in a false conviction or unjust imprisonment," Brackley said in a statement.
Lawmakers in January provided the state agency an additional $7.5 million to support the review and retesting of an estimated 3,000 DNA samples by an independent, third-party laboratory and to pay for post-conviction reviews and potential retrying of cases.
The South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation is conducting a criminal investigation into Woods on Colorado’s behalf to avoid a conflict of interest. The Kansas Bureau of Investigation assisted in the internal affairs investigation.
Boulder triple murder among cases in question
A Boulder triple murder trial set to begin in July could be in jeopardy because of DNA work performed by Woods.
Attorneys for Garrett Coughlin, accused in the April 2017 shooting of Kelly Sloat-White, her husband Lance and his brother Lee Fraker in Coal Creek Canyon, are asking for his case to be dismissed after what they alleged to be ten years of secrecy.
During the triple murder investigation, Woods found DNA from four people, including “strong support” of Coughlin’s DNA, on a chair leg at the crime scene. She also found “very strong support” that Coughlin’s DNA profile was one of four samples found on the holster to the murder weapon.
But, according to Coughlin's attorney Mary Claire Mulligan, in Woods’ report, she deleted the reference to a male DNA sample found in Sloat-White’s bodily fluids.
“Why she did this is remains a mystery to Mr. Coughlin,” Mulligan's motion noted.
“CBI has known that Agent Woods has had credibility problems since at least 2014 and swept those problems under the rug,” wrote Boulder defense attorney Mary Claire Mulligan in a lengthy motion filed May 6.
Since the CBI reports to the Boulder District Attorney’s office, Mulligan said that both entities have known about problems with Woods’ work and neither the CBI nor the Boulder DA notified the defense about them. Thus, she is requesting a dismissal and, if not that, a continuance of the trial.
Coughlin has been in jail for seven years, but the victims’ families have also been frustrated with the process. This is Coughlin’s second trial. The first, which ended in three felony murder convictions, was thrown out due to to juror misconduct, appealed and reset.
Anomalies go back years
A state crime lab employee reported in July 2018 that she discovered Woods violating protocols for DNA analysis on a cold case homicide and confronted Woods, the report shows. The employee told investigators she “felt like Woods was always rushing and cutting corners after this incident.”
The employee reported the incident to Sarah Miller, then a technical leader at the lab, who launched a review. But the internal affairs report states that review languished and was still pending when Miller left the CBI in 2021 to work for a private lab. A new technical leader closed out the review.
Before the review was finished, Woods was allowed to return to crime lab work on high-profile criminal cases, the internal affairs report states. Her superiors also tasked her with training a new employee. She told the CBI assistant director that the 2018 review had not “rehabilitated” her, according to the report.
Lance Allen, the deputy director of CBI’s forensic services, admitted to an internal affairs investigator that he now “has concerns about whether Miller and the entire CBI quality system did enough to follow up and look into the 2018 issue,” according to the report.
The internal affairs report states that another employee raised concerns to the state crime lab’s technical leader Miller in 2014, when another earlier incident involving Woods’ DNA work occurred. That employee, who discovered the issue during a technical review of Woods, said she also reported that issue to Miller — the technical leader at the lab — who did not require a more in-depth review at the time.
The employee, who came to Colorado after working at a crime lab in Washington, said she “was shocked at CBI’s practices when she started.”
Another employee said she saw Woods in the crime lab nonchalantly tossing into the trash fingernail clippings that the employee presumed were evidence collected during a criminal investigation.
The employee said she did not report that incident, which she said occurred in 2014 or 2015, because she was on probation at the time and perceived Woods to be a “golden child” at the CBI. She told the internal affairs investigator she was “99%” sure the fingernail clippings were evidence.
That employee added that, in 2017, she found 11 manipulations in a 2017 DNA batch Woods was working on that she reviewed, and that she “actively avoided doing Woods’ technical reviews after the incidents with her.”
The employee reported to the internal affairs investigators widespread concerns at the lab over CBI pushing productivity and giving higher ratings to DNA scientists who work on more cases.
“She said employees were nervous/concerned about being fired for not meeting productivity," according to the report."
The entire story can be read at:
https://denvergazette.com/colorado-watch/cbi-missy-woods-internal-affairs-report-released/article_1c01c7f2-2369-11ef-bd72-db2aa32fcc81.html
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog.
SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL:
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/4704913685758792985
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FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
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YET ANOTHER FINAL WORD:
David Hammond, one of Broadwater's attorneys who sought his exoneration, told the Syracuse Post-Standard, "Sprinkle some junk science onto a faulty identification, and it's the perfect recipe for a wrongful conviction.
https://deadline.com/2021/11/alice-sebold-lucky-rape-conviction-overturned-anthony-broadwater-12348801
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SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL:
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/4704913685758792985
---------------------------------------------------------------
FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
—————————————————————————————————
FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
————————————————————————————
YET ANOTHER FINAL WORD:
David Hammond, one of Broadwater's attorneys who sought his exoneration, told the Syracuse Post-Standard, "Sprinkle some junk science onto a faulty identification, and it's the perfect recipe for a wrongful conviction.
https://deadline.com/2021/11/alice-sebold-lucky-rape-conviction-overturned-anthony-broadwater-12348801
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