COLORADO, USA — A team in South Dakota is conducting a criminal investigation into a former DNA analyst at the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.
A spokesperson for CBI said the agency requested the help of the South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation to conduct a criminal investigation into the work of forensic scientist Yvonne "Missy" Woods. In November, CBI said it discovered anomalies in her work.
The First Judicial District Attorney's Office - which covers Jefferson and Gilpin counties - said they would handle any future prosecution of Woods as a result of the criminal investigation, because the issues raised are tied to labs in their district.
Woods is no longer an employee of CBI after a 29-year career with the agency.
A month after announcing the investigation into Woods, CBI said it is still working to identify potential anomalies in her casework, and the agency doesn't have a timeline of when that will be completed.
Defense attorneys and prosecutors are waiting to see how many cases, if any, could be impacted by this discovery.
One attorney in Denver had already planned to sue Woods for her work on a case decades ago. Mark Burton heard CBI's announcement days before he filed the federal lawsuit.
"It gave us more impetus and validated our suspicions," Burton said.
His client is James Hunter, a 64-year-old man in prison for a sexual assault that happened in Jefferson County in 2002. After 21 years, he still maintains his innocence. Woods was the lead scientist in charge of analyzing DNA for Hunter's trial. Burton argued the biological evidence is false.
According to the lawsuit, a court dismissed Hunter's case during a preliminary hearing after Woods incorrectly identified the victim's hairs as Hunter's.
Ten months after the crime, the lawsuit says, allegedly new evidence of hair "surfaced."
"Technicians from CBI could not confirm the evidentiary source of the hairs, suggesting that this evidence had to have been manufactured from an alternative source," the lawsuit claims.
In December 2002, a grand jury was convened, and Hunter was indicted based on the same crimes. The lawsuit accused two former police detectives of fabricating hair evidence and presenting this false evidence to a grand jury.
The lawsuit asks for all biological evidence to be turned over so it can be retested.
"What led to a conviction was that hair follicle," Burton said. "It was given to CBI somehow."
In a letter sent to district attorneys on Nov. 6, CBI's director said the agency is compiling a list of cases she may have worked on. District attorneys are waiting for more information.
Burton believes this discovery only helps their fight in federal court.
"I think it will give us added weight to our argument," he said.
SUGGESTED VIDEOS: Latest from 9NEWS