Woods is accused of 58 instances of criminal misconduct from to during her career with CBI. CBI hires outside firm for forensics operation assessment after data manipulation. Decker said he has spoken to individuals who were convicted in part by work completed by Woods and then used in court. In June , a Boulder defendant in a case involving three killings in pleaded guilty to lesser charges after prosecutors offered a plea deal.
The deal was offered partly because prosecutors were unable to call Woods to testify in the case. He could have faced life in prison without parole, but instead was sentenced to 42 years in prison with seven years of pre-sentence credit.
In September , an intern with CBI was reviewing quantification data in vestibular swabs within historical sexual assault cases. The intern discovered that in , Woods processed a sample that was missing a quantification value although the male cycle threshold was noted in the sample. CBI: Over 1K cases impacted by former forensic scientist employed for decades.
In the internal affairs report, Woods admitted to deleting some historical data on a DNA instrument, but she said she was advised to do so during quarterly maintenance. However, the manufacturer did not recommend the deletion, according to the internal report. Nearly a year later, on Dec. The investigation showed evidence of instances where Woods altered and deleted quantification values , re-ran batches of DNA multiple times without any documentation , and concealed possible contamination.
It also found evidence of Woods allegedly deleting specific values in submitted reports to agencies in 35 sexual assault cases, and at least seven homicide cases. According to an arrest affidavit for Woods, investigators asked her about the alleged data manipulation, specifically the manipulated results. I got to put out seven cases that day instead of five.
