SUB-HEADING: "Someone accused a DNA analyst of manipulating data years before an investigation. A former CBI director doesn't remember anyone telling him about it."
SUB-HEADING: "Current and former employees told investigators what they knew about a 2018 complaint against Missy Woods.
GIST: "A DNA scientist considered the "gold standard" at the Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI) mishandled evidence for years, according to an internal investigation, despite repeated warning signs. CBI now knows Yvonne "Missy" Woods' misconduct is impacting more than 650 cases.
9NEWS obtained interviews conducted during an internal investigation that began in late 2023 which detail what people knew about a complaint made against Woods' work in 2018.
Someone accused the veteran analyst of tampering with evidence back in 2018.
Woods was removed from casework and given other duties, including training a newer analyst, pending a review of the accusation.
An employee reviewed Woods' work and she said she couldn't find similar issues.
People in the lab determined this was related to mental health.
The director of CBI at the time, Jon Camper, told an investigator in February 2024 he doesn't remember people in the lab telling him about that serious complaint.
"It depends on how it was presented. In other words, if it was presented as a personnel issue in which somebody is struggling for some reason, needs to be taken off of overtime because of personal problems or something like that — that is one thing," Camper said in his interview.
"If on the other hand, I was informed of any allegations to the extent I have read about in the news, you can be damn sure we would have opened a full investigation."
There was no internal investigation.
Now what Woods is under investigation for today is directly related to what happened in 2018.
People in the lab told investigators they provided updates to Camper, but Camper doesn't remember anyone telling him about data manipulation.
"We wrote it up and took it as a one-off," said the former deputy director of forensic sciences in an interview.
The former deputy director told investigators the situation in 2018 was categorized as a "mistake."
"It was a mental health...is what we determined so that is where we set our effort was to correct her mental health," said the assistant director in his interview.
He said the corrective actions included taking Woods off case work, requesting she see a psychologist, and reviewing previous batch work.
"Missy had told her she was overworked and really stressed, and she is having some medical issues at the time and Missy thinks somewhere along the line she deleted those cells because of that issue and the stress," said the assistant director.
Woods' attorney, Ryan Brackley, told 9NEWS his client shared concerns about burnout to CBI lab management in 2018 when they became aware of anomalies in her work.
Brackley said she asked to be reassigned away from lab work.
"Nevertheless, CBI not only ignored Ms. Woods’ request to be reassigned away from lab work, but they continued to recognize her for her hard work and productivity while also ignoring the warning signs that she was suffering from the stress, trauma and burnout from this work," Brackley said.
"Instead, they continued to assign her to the most high-profile, demanding, and emotionally draining work. It’s a cautionary tale, one that should’ve started with lab management paying attention to the signs that an extremely valuable and hard-working employee was suffering from burnout and work-related trauma, and one that surely shouldn’t end with lab management finger-pointing as to who knew what, and when."
People in the lab attributed the problem in 2018 to Woods' mental health. She was taken off casework for a few months and went to a psychologist.
During one of the interviews, the investigator said scientists had gone back through Missy Woods' work in 2017 and 2018 and identified a number of issues — despite an employee in 2018 finding there were no additional issues.
In a statement issued in June, CBI said Woods concealed her activities from the technical review process. The agency said it's reviewing its processes and procedures to prevent similar manipulation from occurring in the future."
https://www.9news.com/article/news/local/next/next-with-kyle-clark/cbi-dna-analyst-investigation-missy-woods/73-808e55b6-085a-4443-b765-11d311e0a53f
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;
