Weld County DA Dropping Charges Against DNA Analyst Despite Anomalies

The Weld County District Attorney's Office has decided not to file charges against Chiara Wuensch, a former forensic scientist, following an investigation into anomalies in her DNA casework. Wuensch was dismissed from her position at the Weld County Sheriff's Office in March after the Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI) found irregularities during a review of lab results. The DA's office stated that there were only five anomalies among thousands of DNA data entries, which included alleged deletions and alterations of data.

Despite initial considerations to pursue criminal charges, the DA's office concluded there was no probable cause to believe Wuensch had committed a crime. The CBI's findings indicated that the anomalies did not affect DNA identification or elimination in criminal cases. Wuensch has denied any intentional wrongdoing, attributing the discrepancies to potential mistakes in data entry. The anomalies were identified during a separate CBI investigation into its own employees, but the review determined that the errors did not compromise the integrity of the DNA amplification process required by standard procedures.