The Denver Police Department’s crime lab has now significantly expanded its review of DNA testing previously done by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation’s troubled forensic lab, bringing the total to more than 1,300 past sexual assault cases in the area.

That is more than triple the CBI cases the city’s crime lab said in April it would re-examine in the wake of the ongoing scandal at the state lab.

At the time Denver police said its own lab would review 422 area sexual assault cases dating back to 2013 that had been previously handled by former forensic scientist Yvonne Woods at CBI. The unusual move was to check for accuracy and determine if suspects may have escaped prosecution because of faulty testing.

“The Denver Police Crime Laboratory is still evaluating cases tested by CBI on sexual assaults that took place within Denver’s jurisdiction. At this time, we are reviewing in excess of 1,300 cases dating back to 2013, which include the 422 cases handled by Ms. Woods and others for complete due diligence,” a police spokesperson said in an email this month to The Denver Gazette.

It was not disclosed whether the additional 900 cases now under review included more work by Woods, who goes by the name Missy, or if it the police lab is doublechecking work done by CBI as a whole. It also was not disclosed what triggered such a dramatic expansion and what, if anything, has been found so far. 

Results of the police lab review will be made public in about three months, police said.

On Friday, CBI said it had just updated its number of impacted cases where problems were found to 1,045. That is roughly one-in-10 of the more than 10,780 cases Woods worked during her 29 years at the state lab. It is a number that has risen steadily since the early days of the scandal when it was thought to be about three dozen.

In the nearly two years since it was first made public that Woods — once CBI’s go-to expert in forensic analysis — had allegedly altered or deleted DNA results in criminal cases, much of the concern has focused on potential wrongful convictions based on her findings. But the Denver review could now point to the other side of the coin: possibly letting a suspect go because authorities believed there was not enough evidence to proceed.

Separate from the current police review, the January arrest affidavit against Woods included seven sexual assault cases in the Denver area between 2015 and 2018 in which she is alleged to have falsely reported the quantity of male DNA found, reducing it enough so it was considered “insufficient” to create a profile. That meant that no further analysis was required or done, according to the affidavit.

For instance, Woods is accused of adding a zero to the decimal quantity — from .00025 to .000025 — in her February 2018 report in connection with a Denver sexual assault case.  It substantially lessened the amount DNA detected and she concluded there was not enough to develop a profile, the affidavit said.

In the same case she is accused of failing to report possible contamination at the lab.

“Every time someone turns over a rock this thing gets bigger,” said state Rep. Michael Carter, a Democrat representing Adams and Arapahoe counties who is vice-chair of the legislature’s Judiciary Committee. He said he was unaware of Denver’s expanded inquiry into CBI’s work. 

A defense attorney, Carter has been sharply critical of CBI’s handling of the scandal and its reluctance to release details of wrongdoing uncovered that could help understand the scope and toll of misconduct in the lab.

“She has not only harmed defendants, she has irreversibly harmed victims who have been re-victimized because 10 years ago someone did not do their job,” Carter said of Woods.

Denver police have previously said that if irregularities are found in its review, it will then determine if re-testing is needed or if new leads in past cases need to be pursued.

The January indictment against Woods, filed in Jefferson County where the CBI lab is located, outlines a total of 58 alleged deceptions and altered data by Woods in cases ranging from sexual assault to burglary to homicide across the Front Range, including alleged sexual assault on a child in both Aurora and Pueblo, and an El Paso County Sheriff’s Office case involving alleged child trafficking.

Woods now faces 102 felony charges and is awaiting trial. She retired in November 2023, just before the scandal broke, rather than be fired.

CBI has denied multiple requests by The Denver Gazette filed under the state’s open records law for a fuller account of problems at the lab.

In an email to The Denver Gazette last week, CBI declined to comment on how many of the cases Denver police are reviewing are among the 1,045 it flagged in its internal investigation.

The agency also did not comment directly on the expanded review but offered a repeat of the emailed statement it previously issued in April that it “welcomes the opportunity to work with Denver crime lab in its assessment to determine if any Denver PD cases warrant retesting.”

While the Denver Police Department has its own crime lab, in the past it sent some of its sexual assault cases to CBI for testing. A police spokesperson told The Denver Gazette in an email it stopped sending cases to CBI last year.

The Boulder County Sheriff’s Office said in an email last week it has also stopped sending cases to CBI for forensic testing and instead now uses the Jefferson County Regional Crime Lab. While appreciative of work done by CBI for its office in the past, Boulder Sheriff Curtis Johnson said in the email the transition is “focused on ensuring efficiency and effectiveness in our forensic investigations, allowing us to better serve victims and uphold the integrity of our cases.”

In Colorado Springs, its police department, like Denver, has its own crime. It currently sends some cases to the CBI lab in Pueblo for analysis and has no plans at this time to review those results, a Colorado Springs police spokesperson said in an email.

In her November 8, 2023, interview with CBI internal investigators, Woods said starting in 2013, Denver shipped potentially shaky cases to the state lab for processing rather than test them in-house. The Denver Gazette obtained a transcript of that interview.

“Denver gave us all the cases they knew they weren’t going to prosecute, and they told us that,” she said. “It wasn’t so much I was pissed but it was like Denver has their own lab and everything.”

She said in the interview she had been “overwhelmed” and “burned out” for a long time. When asked if she ever tampered with results, such as adding zeros to reflect smaller amounts of DNA so no further testing was warranted and her workload was lessened, she acknowledged it was possible but had no specific recollection of doing so.

She also speculated during the interview that altering data in sexual assault cases would be easier than in other crimes.

Kelsey Harbert, a sexual assault survivor and advocate who testified to lawmakers earlier this year about the more than 500-day wait time for CBI to process rape kits, said she was grateful that Denver is taking the step to review work previously done by the state lab and hopes other labs will follow.

“But I am beyond heartbroken for every survivor who is going to be affected by the misconduct of Woods and CBI’s failure to do a thorough review of her work,” she said, “The revelation that sex assault evidence was treated with such indignity and disrespect before, during and since Woods was exposed is unconscionable.”