William Woods was a victim of identity theft, but he was the one jailed

No one believed William Woods.

They didn’t imagine somebody used his social safety quantity to run up a whole bunch of hundreds of {dollars} in debt. They didn’t imagine the social safety card he himself carried was actual.

Above all, nobody believed he actually was William Woods.

He was arrested for unauthorized use of private info and spent almost two years locked up awaiting trial, together with greater than 100 days in a psychiatric hospital. Woods finally pleaded no contest in a Los Angeles courtroom to identification theft and false impersonation in change for a time-served sentence and speedy launch from custody.

Woods had by no means pretended to be anybody however himself. The issue, it turned out, was that somebody had spent a long time pretending to be Woods.

Final week, the wrongdoer — Matthew David Keirans — pleaded responsible to creating a false assertion to a Nationwide Credit score Union Administration insured establishment and aggravated identification theft, based on the U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace for the Northern District of Iowa.

The 58-year-old faces as much as 32 years in jail.

A spokesperson for the Los Angeles Police Division, which arrested Woods again in 2019, mentioned the division is conscious of the case and is “actively investigating.”

Venusse Dunn, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County district legal professional, mentioned her workplace filed a movement final week to vacate Woods’ conviction.

In a latest interview with The Instances, Woods mentioned he’s contemplating submitting a lawsuit in opposition to town of L.A. for the years he spent behind bars, accused of against the law he didn’t commit.

“They need to pay for daily I needed to keep there,” the 55-year-old mentioned. “It isn’t proper to be placing me in jail for nothing.”

A stolen identification

The rip-off started 4 a long time in the past at a sizzling canine cart in Albuquerque, N.M.

Woods had been working there for years, he mentioned, when Keirans was employed in 1988. The boys didn’t work together till Woods’ pockets went lacking. When Woods questioned Keirans in regards to the theft, he mentioned, the opposite man didn’t reply.

“I put my fist in his face, and he determined at hand me again my pockets,” mentioned Woods, though he didn’t hit Keirans.

Woods mentioned he seemed contained in the pockets and his social safety card and delivery certificates had been nonetheless inside.

“I didn’t suppose something of it,” Woods mentioned. “I didn’t suppose he was really going to do something.”

However, after 1988, there was no file of Keirans ever utilizing his personal title, date of delivery or social safety quantity, based on his plea settlement.

As a substitute, Keirans obtained employment, insurance coverage, a social safety quantity, driver’s licenses, titles, loans and credit score utilizing Woods’ identification. He even paid taxes underneath his former coworker’s title.

In December 1990, Keirans received a Colorado ID card as Woods. Then he received a job at a quick meals restaurant and opened a brand new checking account, all utilizing the stolen identification.

The next September, Keirans, posing as Woods, purchased a automotive for $600 utilizing checks that later bounced, based on the settlement. In consequence, an arrest warrant was issued for Woods.

Keirans’ fiction prolonged to his private life. He married in 1994. The couple had a toddler in Oregon who bore Woods’ final title. To maintain his charade going, Keirans in 2012 obtained Woods’ licensed delivery certificates from Kentucky, utilizing info from Ancestry.com, based on prosecutors.

On this Feb. 13, 2014, file photograph, a bus sits in entrance of the College of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa Metropolis, Iowa.

(Ryan J. Foley / Related Press)

He later received a job — as Woods — working as a techniques architect on the College of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. Keirans offered the hospital with faux identification paperwork, together with a fictitious I-9 type, social safety quantity and date of delivery, based on the plea settlement.

Keirans labored remotely from his dwelling in Wisconsin and earned at the very least $700,000 from the hospital over a 10-year interval. Between 2016 and 2022, he obtained automobile and private loans from credit score unions underneath Woods’ title, totaling greater than $200,000.

The actual William Woods

Because the faux Woods appeared to thrive, the true one struggled.

After leaving New Mexico, Woods mentioned he labored as a day laborer in El Paso then received a job at a laundromat in Las Vegas. Finally, he moved to Southern California.

He spent a number of years in San Diego, the place he mentioned he labored a tech job, earlier than transferring to Santa Monica in 2009. He stayed in accommodations and motels across the space and mentioned he bought gem stones, gold scraps or different objects he discovered on the streets of downtown L.A.’s jewellery district.

Self portrait of William Woods

(William Woods)

On Aug. 20, 2019, Woods, whom prosecutors described as homeless, went to an L.A. department of a nationwide financial institution and instructed the assistant department supervisor that he’d lately found somebody was utilizing his credit score and had gathered a considerable amount of debt, based on Keirans’ plea settlement. Woods requested his account numbers so he might shut them.

Woods gave the assistant department supervisor his social safety card and his California ID. His title and social safety quantity matched these related to financial institution accounts Keirans had opened. Due to the massive quantities of cash within the accounts, the financial institution worker requested Woods a sequence of safety questions, which he was unable to reply accurately, based on courtroom information.

The financial institution worker then referred to as the quantity tied to the financial institution accounts. Keirans answered. He instructed her nobody in California ought to have entry to his checking account. He accurately answered the safety questions. The assistant department supervisor referred to as the police.

LAPD officers spoke with Keirans on the telephone, and he later faxed them a duplicate of a social safety card, a Wisconsin driver’s license and the Kentucky delivery certificates. The officers arrested Woods for unauthorized use of private info.

On Oct. 31, the district legal professional’s workplace charged Woods with two felonies, within the title of “Matthew Kierans” — misspelling the true identification thief’s final title. That day in courtroom, based on courtroom reporter transcripts obtained by The Instances, Woods instructed the choose, “I’m not Matthew Keirans in any respect.” It’s unclear how Woods was linked to the identification thief’s title.

Two months later, Woods once more instructed the courtroom, “No, I’m not Keirans in any respect.” He requested for one more legal professional. He mentioned he wished an investigator. He didn’t make sense at instances, saying the investigator was in Mexico and that he obtained a password, based on the transcript.

“I’m sorry. Cease. You’ve received to cease,” the choose instructed Woods, earlier than pulling the attorneys apart.

“Your Honor, primarily based on my conversations with my shopper, and at the moment, I don’t imagine that he’s competent, and I’m declaring a doubt,” Susana Juarez, Deputy Alternate Public Defender, mentioned quickly after.

The choose suspended legal proceedings and mentioned a psychiatrist can be appointed.

“I need to discuss to the FBI,” Woods mentioned.

“You can provide them a name,” the choose replied.

“I would like some brokers to come back down right here,” Woods mentioned.

In February 2020, the choose discovered Woods was not mentally competent to face trial and ordered him to a psychiatric hospital. It was additionally ordered that he obtain psychotropic remedy.

A little bit greater than eight months later, after quite a few delays due to bedspace and COVID-19 points, Woods was transported to Patton State Hospital, based on a minute order from the courtroom.

“Folks didn’t hear, they usually didn’t know I used to be who I mentioned I used to be,” Woods mentioned. “They had been portray it like I used to be loopy.”

All through that point, based on the plea settlement, Keirans saved writing to L.A. authorities, requesting updates on the case.

In March 2020, he wrote the assistant district legal professional and requested whether or not the method was transferring ahead and if there can be courtroom hearings each two months to find out competence. The assistant district legal professional confirmed that to be the case “till he regains competency.”

“That is assuming he does,” Keirans responded, based on the plea settlement.

Woods was convicted of felony prices in March 2021. He pleaded “no contest” and was sentenced to 2 years of imprisonment within the county jail, though the courtroom credited him for the 428 days he spent in jail and the 147 days he spent within the hospital.

He was ordered to cease utilizing the title William Woods.

Woods mentioned he pleaded out so the case in opposition to him can be dismissed.

“At first I saved saying, ‘I’m not responsible,’ however they wouldn’t imagine that,” Woods mentioned. “They wouldn’t imagine it.”

A DNA take a look at

After his launch, Woods was decided to get again his identification.

A picture offered as courtroom proof exhibits Matthew Keirans, who lived as William Woods for 36 years, till he was caught.

(U.S. Division of Justice)

In August 2021, he contacted the native police division in Wisconsin and reported that Keirans had stolen his identification, based on the plea settlement. That very same month, Keirans filed a criticism falsely claiming that Woods had stolen his identification.

Woods then filed buyer disputes in an try to clear his credit score report, based on the settlement. Keirans filed a second identification theft criticism with the native police and later submitted a notarized assertion in help of his declare.

In January 2023, Woods realized the place Keirans labored and contacted the Iowa Metropolis hospital’s safety division. They referred his criticism to the College of Iowa Police Division.

Detective Ian Mallory obtained DNA from Woods and his father, listed on the Kentucky delivery certificates. The take a look at proved that Woods was his father’s son.

When Mallory interviewed Keirans, he instructed Mallory that Woods was “loopy” and “wanted assist and needs to be locked up.” Mallory requested Keirans for his father’s title and Keirans mistakenly gave the primary title of his personal adoptive father, based on the plea settlement.

Mallory then confronted Keirans with the DNA proof. Keirans responded by saying, “my life is over,” and “every thing is gone.”

Keirans pleaded responsible April 1 in federal courtroom in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He stays in custody of the USA Marshal pending sentencing.

In a letter written to the courtroom on Keirans’ behalf, his son recognized himself because the “son of Matthew Keirans, previously often known as William Woods — in both case, identified to me as Dad.”

Beginning over

In a rambling telephone interview, Woods floated theories about what occurred to him and why — most of which The Instances couldn’t affirm.

Woods spoke of corrupt cops and politicians throughout the nation. He insisted that LAPD officers had identified he was the true Woods and conspired with the banker to “put me in jail on objective.”

When requested about Woods’ claims, an LAPD spokeswoman cited the investigation and mentioned “further info concerning this case will not be at the moment out there.”

Eric Kilmer, who had employed Woods at his sizzling canine cart enterprise beginning within the Eighties, described him as “probably the most harmless kind fellow you’ll ever need to meet.” He added that folks would reap the benefits of Woods.

At instances, he mentioned, Woods has rambled off names, a few of individuals Kilmer is aware of and others he doesn’t.

“I believe that since individuals had been making the most of him over time, all these names stick in his head,” Kilmer instructed The Instances. “He’s simply attempting to tie all of it collectively in his personal thoughts, I believe.”

Final yr, Woods moved again to Albuquerque, the place he lived in a resort. He’s at the moment staying in a good friend’s van in El Paso.

Woods mentioned he doesn’t know but what he’ll be doing for work.

“What’s subsequent for me?” he requested. “I assume I’ve to regain all my stuff again and simply rebuild what I used to be.”