2025/02/25
Forensic Magazine, February 24, 2025: Colorado Bill Would Require Reporting of Misconduct at CBI
Colorado lawmakers introduced a bipartisan bill last week that aims to strengthen the rules for reporting and investigating misconduct at the Colorado Bureau of Investigation's (CBI) crime laboratory in the wake of the Yvonne “Missy” Woods scandal.
Last month, Woods was charged with 102 counts related to 58 instances of alleged criminal misconduct committed between 2008 and 2023 during her career as a Forensic Laboratory Scientist at CBI. This amount to over 1,000 cases impacted by misconduct.
In September 2023, a CBI intern noted anomalies in Woods’ work while reviewing quantification data in vestibular swabs within historical sexual assault cases. The CBI started auditing Woods’ work thereafter; however, records show other colleagues voiced concerns about Woods’ work dating all the way back to 2014.
House Bill 25-1275, or the Forensic Science Integrity Act, would require crime lab employees to report a wrongful action they witness to their supervisor within two weeks. The supervisor would then need to investigate the claim and report it to the CBI director. According to the bill, the director must then inform all relevant district attorneys of the wrongful action. In turn, a district attorney must notify the defendant in each case that the employee worked on about the alleged wrongful action. more