Source: denverpost.com 4/7/25 The Denver Police Department will independently review more than 400 sex assault cases handled by now-discredited Colorado Bureau of Investigation scientist Yvonne “Missy” Woods to ensure the DNA testing was valid. The police department’s crime laboratory started a process to review the reports from at least 422 sexual assault evidence kits that Denver police submitted to CBI for DNA testing over the last 12 years, spokesman Doug Schepman said in a statement Friday. From that initial review, the lab will determine how many kits should be re-tested, he said.…
Read MoreTag: Colorado
CO: Colorado crime lab analyst charged for allegedly altering reports in sexual assault cases
Source: yahoo.com 1/24/25 Authorities have charged a former Colorado-based crime lab analyst with more than 100 criminal counts over allegations that she altered reports in cases of sexual assault. On Tuesday, a Colorado district attorney, Alexis King, announced that Yvonne “Missy” Woods was charged with 102 counts related to 58 instances of alleged criminal misconduct between 2008 and 2023 during her career as a lab analyst for the state’s bureau of investigation. The counts against Woods include cybercrime, perjury in the first degree, attempts to influence a public servant and forgery. Woods allegedly…
Read MoreCO: Colorado Jail Guard Must Stand Trial for Opening Accused Sex Offender’s Cell, Subjecting Him to Assault
Source: prisonlegalnews.org 7/1/24 On December 13, 2023, the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado denied summary judgment to a jail guard who allegedly failed to protect a pretrial detainee from assault by another detainee. But the Court dismissed a municipal liability claim against Colorado’s Chaffee County, even though the guard had been disciplined before—three times—for failing to keep cell doors locked. Jason Harter, then 34, was arrested and booked into Chaffee County Detention Center (CCDC) on February 20, 2020, on charges of kidnapping, forcible rape of an individual…
Read MoreCO: How Did a Local From a Prominent American Indian Tribe Get Stuck in a Sex Offender System That Could Keep Him Behind Bars for Life?
Source: 5280.com June 2024 Most mornings last year, John Red Cloud would rise before daybreak in his home on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, in southwest South Dakota. He’d walk to the porch of his house and peer out at the shadows of undulating, grassy hills in the distance. Eventually, dawn would spread across the reservation, illuminating the ancestral land where Red Cloud had been born and raised and now was rebuilding his life. On those mornings, Red Cloud stretched his arms skyward and gave thanks to his creator. After…
Read MoreCO: Neighbors protest facility run by Colorado mental health agency over sex offender claims
Source: cbsnews.com 4/6/24 Northglenn neighbors were out in their community to voice their opposition to a mental health facility run by the state of Colorado. which is set to open in a residential area. They say their biggest concern is that there may be sex offenders housed near families’ homes and schools. “If places like this are going to be coming into our communities, the people who live here need to know about it, and we want to have a say in it,” said Danielle Luciano. Read the full article (Write and…
Read MoreCO: Colorado Senate Bill 118 would allow community-based treatment for sex offenders
Source: coloradopolitics.com 3/12/24 Senate Judiciary members heard testimony on a bill that would eliminate indeterminate prison sentences for certain convicted sex offenders and allow them to receive treatment in the community rather than in prisons, but did not vote on the measure at the request of the bill’s sponsor. In addition to removing some indeterminate sentences, Senate Bill 118 would impose mandatory minimums for individuals convicted of sex crimes, mandating that they serve 75% of their sentence before becoming eligible for parole. The bill would allow offenders deemed “low-risk” to complete…
Read MoreCO: Colorado Bureau of Investigation finds DNA scientist manipulated data in hundreds of cases over decades
Source: yahoo.com 3/9/24 A now-former forensic scientist with the Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI) manipulated or omitted DNA test results in hundreds of cases, an internal affairs investigation found, which prompted a full review of her work during her nearly 30-year career at the agency. The CBI released the findings of the investigation into Yvonne “Missy” Woods Friday, which concluded Woods’ handling of DNA testing data affected 652 cases between 2008 and 2023, including posting incomplete results in some cases. A review of her work from 1994 to 2008 is…
Read MoreCO: Legal Paradox in Colorado: Dismissed Sex Offense Charge Leaves Man on Registry
Source: bnnbreaking.com 2/21/24 Discover the legal anomaly that binds Derek Abram Dulac to a sex offender registry despite the dismissal of his sex offense charge. This case challeng In the heart of Colorado’s judicial labyrinth, Derek Abram Dulac finds himself ensnared in a legal paradox that challenges the essence of justice and rehabilitation. His journey through the court system highlights a peculiar anomaly in the law, one that leaves a man tethered to a sex offender registry for charges that no longer stand against him. It’s a narrative that not…
Read MoreCO: Federal judge dismisses challenge to ‘frustrating’ delays in sex offender treatment behind bars
Source: coloradopolitics.com 1/1/24 Multiple federal judges have looked skeptically in recent months at Colorado’s inability to provide people who are eligible for parole with required sex offender treatment A federal judge recently dismissed an incarcerated man’s challenge to his lack of sex offender treatment in the Colorado Department of Corrections, despite having no idea when he will have access to that mandatory component of his criminal sentence. U.S. District Court Senior Judge William J. Martínez determined David A. Wismer III did not sufficiently allege Colorado committed a constitutional violation by repeatedly de-prioritizing…
Read MoreCO: Musician who called out alleged sexual predators online for years pleads guilty to attempted sexual assault on a minor
Source: westword.com 9/6/23 Ross _______, a political activist and onetime prominent member of the local punk music scene, has spent years using the internet to call out alleged perpetrators of sexual assault — and anyone who associates with them. But this summer, _______ himself was convicted of attempted sexual assault on a minor, and a condition of his probation sentence had him kicked off the internet. … On September 23, 2022, _______ began sending messages to a person he thought was a fourteen-year-old girl named _______, according to a Jefferson…
Read MoreCO: Sex offender registry meant to inform public, not target offenders, officials say
Source: durangoherald.com 8/24/23 ‘When we make them a pariah, we drive them underground,’ says district attorney A Durango man accused of breaking into another man’s house in the middle of the night and attempting to fatally shoot him may have been carrying out an act of vigilantism directed toward a registered sex offender, according to the victim and an arrest affidavit. Several details of the Aug. 9 shooting remain unknown or have not yet been made public by law enforcement. For example, it is unknown if the suspect, Troy Allen…
Read MoreCO: Lincoln County judge wrongly denied man opportunity to justify possession of contraband, court rules
Source: coloradopolitics.com 8/14/23 Licoln County judge improperly denied an incarcerated man the opportunity to justify his possession of contraband weapons behind bars, Colorado’s second-highest court ruled last week in reversing the conviction. Colorado law provides for a “choice-of-evils” defense. A person can avoid conviction if they show they were facing imminent harm and engaged in criminal conduct as an emergency measure, without another path available to avoid the harm. Edward ___ was incarcerated at Limon Correctional Facility for a sex offense when he disclosed to an employee that he had…
Read MoreCO: Colorado Supreme Court strikes down law allowing child sex abuse lawsuits from decades past
Source: cpr.org 6/20/23 Childhood sexual abuse victims in Colorado will no longer be able to file lawsuits over abuse that happened decades ago, as the state Supreme Court struck down a law Tuesday that gave victims a three-year window to sue over abuses as far back as the 1960s. The court cited the state Constitution’s ban on legislation that retroactively applies to conduct prior to its passage. Colorado’s Child Sexual Abuse Accountability Act, passed in 2021, was partly intended to allow child victims to bypass the statute of limitations and seek…
Read MoreCO: Federal judge allows 2 men to sue over lack of access to sex offender treatment
Source: coloradopolitics.com 5/25/23 Incarceration without access to treatment ‘alters the conditions of an inmate’s confinement in a way that can only set back his rehabilitation,’ wrote Judge Nina Wang Two men incarcerated for sex offenses, who have been moved around to various facilities where they were unable to participate in legally required treatment, may sue Colorado corrections officials for violating their constitutional rights, a federal judge ruled this week. Gino ___ and Brian ___ filed suit last year, alleging the only thing preventing them from being paroled is their failure…
Read MoreCO: Allegedly murderous stepmom tried to pin stepson’s disappearance on wanted sex offender
Source: lawandcrime.com 4/19/23 An FBI special agent testified on Wednesday that an allegedly murderous stepmother tried to pin her stepson’s disappearance on a wanted sex offender, whose unrelated case was publicized in local news. In truth, however, there was no indication that this man, Quincy ____, had anything to do with victim Gannon Stauch, 11, going missing on Jan. 27, 2020, said FBI Special Agent Amber Cronan. Prosecutors in Colorado Springs, Colorado, point the finger at the child’s stepmother, Letecia Stauch, 39, who they say stabbed Gannon 18 times, shot…
Read MoreCO: Does mandatory reporting of child abuse help or hurt? A Colorado task force is taking a second look.
Source: coloradosun.com 3/7/23 A newly launched state task force is only the second in the nation to look closely at reforming policies that have gone unchallenged for decades. Every person with a conscience is against child abuse. But for the first time in decades, policymakers are giving the most widely used intervention in child abuse cases — mandatory reporting — a second look. In Colorado, a task force born of calls to strengthen mandatory reporting laws after a horrific abuse case has grown into something different: a look at whether…
Read MoreCO: Colorado woman faces no jail time for statutory rape, pregnancy by 13-year-old boy
Source: news.yahoo.com 3/4/23 A 31-year-old woman who admitted to having sex with a 13-year-old boy and getting pregnant with his child will serve no jail time, according to reports. “I feel like if she was a man, and he was a little girl, it would definitely be different,” the victim’s mother said. “They would be seeking more. I feel like because he is not a woman, they are not. They are having compassion for her.” … But now Serrano may go free and face no jail time for her crime…
Read MoreIN: VCSO: Man says he shot a sex offender
Source: tristatehomepage.com 7/28/22 VANDERBURGH CO., Ind. (WEHT) – The man accused of shooting and killing another man on Maggie Valley Drive in Vanderburgh County apparently did so because he thought the man he shot was a sex offender. Ricky Allen Kiper Jr. was arrested Wednesday and charged with the murder of James Christopher McClernon. An autopsy shows McClernon died of multiple gunshot wounds. According to court documents Kiper showed up at a home where McClernon was staying around 3:00 Wednesday afternoon. The documents go on to say Kiper, McClernon and…
Read More