CBI DNA debacle hits Weld County in a 45 year old cold case awaiting trial
0A hearing in Weld County called to shed light on the scope of the Colorado Bureau of Investigation DNA science/testing debacle was postponed when only one of three parties showed up.
That party was the district attorney who called the hearing in the first place.
Michael Rourke, 19th Judicial District Attorney, subpoenaed the Colorado Attorney General’s office — which is representing the CBI — to appear before 19th District Judge Marcelo Kopcow to produce an elusive internal affairs investigative report into former CBI DNA scientist Yvonne “Missy” Woods.
State officials announced a week and a half ago that DNA findings in more than 1,000 criminal cases in Colorado are now “in question” due to data manipulation by Woods.
Woods did much of the DNA work on a 45-year-old murder cold case which is awaiting trial in Weld County. As the CBI Northern Colorado liaison, Rourke said that Woods worked on 85 cases from 2008 to the present.
But according to Attorney General's Office spokesperson Lawrence Pacheco, the court clerk told his office that they didn't need to show up, so no one from Phil Weiser’s office came to the courtroom to represent CBI, a confusing development which Rourke described as woefully inadequate.
“I’m tired of CBI and the Attorney General’s office dragging their feet. That’s why I issued a subpoena in the first place. This is absurd!” said Rourke, so frustrated that he slapped the podium where he was standing.