The Denver Police Department will independently review more than 400 sex assault cases handled by now-discredited Colorado Bureau of Investigation scientist Yvonne “Missy” Woods to ensure the DNA testing was valid.
The police department’s crime laboratory started a process to review the reports from at least 422 sexual assault evidence kits that Denver police submitted to CBI for DNA testing over the last 12 years, spokesman Doug Schepman said in a statement Friday.
From that initial review, the lab will determine how many kits should be re-tested, he said. If re-testing reveals new DNA evidence, police will investigate the sex assault cases further, Schepman said.
The move to review the cases comes after CBI discovered Woods mishandled DNA testing in more than a thousand cases during her nearly 30-year tenure as a DNA analyst at the statewide law enforcement agency. Woods retired in lieu of termination in late 2023 after an internal investigation found she deleted, omitted or manipulated DNA data in at least 1,003 criminal cases.
She was charged with 102 felonies in January; the criminal case against her is ongoing.
The review by the Denver Crime Laboratory is separate from — and redundant to — CBI’s internal review of Woods’ cases. CBI reviewed more than 10,000 cases that Woods handled — including the 422 Denver cases — and found problems in 1,003 cases.
The agency did identify problems in a subset of the 422 Denver cases, CBI spokesman Rob Low said. He and Schepman both declined to give a specific number.
During CBI’s internal investigation, Woods admitted to taking shortcuts when she was testing Denver sex assault cases, an internal affairs report shows. She said she did so after Colorado legislators passed a law in 2013 that required authorities to test nearly all sexual assault evidence kits, regardless of whether the case was likely to result in an arrest or prosecution.
Woods told internal affairs investigators that she believed the Denver crime lab sent CBI the sex assault cases it did not expect to solve, so she took shortcuts in the DNA testing process — she deleted data about low quantities of male DNA so that she wouldn’t have to complete additional testing that was unlikely to produce conclusive results, according to the internal affairs report.
“Denver PD gave us all the cases that they knew they weren’t going to prosecute and they told us that,” Woods said in a November 2023 interview with investigators. She then cited the 2013 law change and said CBI was overwhelmed at the time.
The agency reported in 2016 that the law more than tripled the number of sex assault evidence kits submitted to CBI.
During the internal affairs interview, Woods agreed with an investigator’s suggestion that her flawed work on the Denver sex assault testing might have been “a method of triage.”
“Possibly,” she said, according to an excerpt in the internal affairs report. “Again, no excuse for it.”
Related Articles
In wake of CBI’s rape kit backlog and Missy Woods scandal, lawmakers seek audit of agency Colorado’s backlog to test rape kits now tops 500 days, rising in fallout of scandal involving DNA scientist Missy Woods, DNA analyst at center of CBI scandal, charged with 102 felonies Inside the investigation of a CBI scientist’s years of misconduct: “God forbid we have someone in prison that shouldn’t be” CBI selects fledgling consulting firm to audit forensic services in wake of DNA scandalThe 2013 law was aimed at clearing Colorado’s backlog of untested sexual assault evidence kits, which are sometimes called rape kits. In 2016, CBI announced it had worked through the backlog and tested more than 3,000 old cases.
But it didn’t last. The agency now has a backlog of more than 1,400 untested rape kits. It currently takes about 558 days for kits to be tested after they are submitted to the state, according to CBI. The agency’s goal is to turn around testing in 90 days.
The current backlog was exacerbated by Woods’ misconduct because the agency pulled scientists from casework to handle the review of Woods’ cases, officials have said.
Schepman said police would work with CBI as the city’s review goes forward.
“We intend to collaborate with the CBI on our results of the review, in the interest of working together to serve victims in the best way possible,” Schepman said.
Denver Post reporter Nick Coltrain contributed to this report.
Sign up to get crime news sent straight to your inbox each day.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Denver police to review 422 sex assault cases handled by discredited CBI scientist Missy Woods )
Also on site :