In a potentially widely consequential action, a Weld County district judge dismissed a child sexual assault case, citing the ongoing scandal at the Colorado Bureau of Investigation’s forensic lab that “has left a dark mark on the history of Colorado justice.”

On Aug. 2, Judge Vincente Vigil granted a defense motion to dismiss the charges against Daniel Lee Eatinger based on its accusation of CBI’s “outrageous government conduct” — considered a rare and extremely difficult burden to prove.

Eatinger, now 31, was accused of having sexual contact with a girl under the age of 15 in July 2018. Charges were filed in 2020, and the case appeared headed for trial before the dismissal, according to court documents.

The judge’s ruling was appealed Monday to the Colorado Supreme Court by the Weld County District Attorney’s Office.

A spokesperson for the district attorney’s office declined to comment due to the pending litigation.

At the heart of the judge’s scathing ruling is the CBI scandal, the full impact of which remains still mostly unknown.

First made public in 2024, CBI revealed that its once most revered and prolific DNA analyst had been deleting, altering and manipulating findings in criminal cases for years. She resigned rather than being fired just before it was made public.

Yvonne Wood, who goes by Missy, was charged in January 2025 with 102 felony counts in connection with her actions. After pleading guilty in June to one felony count each of cybercrime, perjury, forgery and attempting to influence a public servant, she now faces up to 16 years in prison.

Sentencing for Woods is scheduled for Sept. 8.

While Vigil, in his six-page ruling, took aim at Woods, he also wrote a withering rebuke of the state agency as a whole, contending it was complicit.

“The shocking nature of these acts come from the breadth and scope of one person’s actions enabled by an agency with little taste for oversight,” the judge wrote.

He added, “The fact of the matter is that Ms. Woods chose to become a cancer within the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, and that agency chose first to ignore, then place a bandage on the tumor until it could no longer be hidden from public view.”

An internal CBI internal investigation revealed to the public for the first time that CBI supervisors were alerted to problems with Woods’ work in 2014 and again in 2018 but there was no real consequence. In 2018, she was ordered to undergo a brief period of therapy but was soon returned to her regular duties.

The Eatinger DNA testing occurred after she returned, the court decision said.

CBI did not comment on Wednesday if his case was among the 1,045 Woods cases it flagged as having problems during its internal review. During her 29 years at CBI, Woods handled more than 10,789 cases, which meant problems were found in roughly one in 10.

“We have tremendous respect for the courts and the judicial process, and we will watch the appellate review of the case. We stand firmly behind the integrity of our Forensic Lab,” a CBI spokesperson said in a statement Wednesday.

The Weld County ruling is seen as an important precedent by at least one defense attorney in Colorado who has filed his own motion to dismiss charges in his client’s case based on alleged “outrageous government conduct” surrounding CBI lab.

Adam Frank filed his complaint on behalf of Michael Clark in May, alleging that the lab lowered recognized forensic standards and turned a blind eye to Woods’ rushed and shoddy testing.

“Finally, a judge is saying what we have been saying,” Frank said on Wednesday, although he conceded the ruling could be reversed.

Clark is facing a second murder trial after his first conviction was vacated last year following the independent retesting of DNA evidence that had initially been done by Woods.

Clark was convicted in 2012 of the first-degree murder of Marty Grisham in Boulder in 1994 and spent nearly 13 years in prison, largely on the strength of Woods’ conclusions and testimony about DNA found in a jar of Carmex lip balm at the scene.

Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty agreed in April 2025 to set aside the original conviction because of problems in the case. He later announced Clark would be retried.