A Los Angeles Superior Court docket decide on Thursday vacated the conviction of William Woods, who spent almost two years locked up — together with a stint in a psychiatric hospital — for against the law he didn’t commit.
Woods had pleaded no contest to id theft and false impersonation in 2019, regardless of making an attempt to persuade authorities he was the actual Woods and another person had stolen his id.
Final week, the person who stole Woods’ id — Matthew David Keirans — pleaded responsible to creating a false assertion to a Nationwide Credit score Union Administration-insured establishment and aggravated id theft.
The Los Angeles County district legal professional’s workplace then filed a movement to vacate Woods’ conviction.
In a listening to that lasted lower than quarter-hour, Decide William C. Ryan stated he was “very happy” to signal the order vacating the conviction, calling the case “astounding.”
“The phrase that involves thoughts is Kafkaesque, out of the novels of Franz Kafka,” Ryan stated.
Woods, who now lives in El Paso, was not current in courtroom however known as in to the listening to.
“I’m comfortable, as a result of I knew I used to be harmless anyway,” Woods stated by telephone afterward. “I knew I used to be harmless.”
Keirans admitted in a plea settlement to stealing Woods’ id in 1988, when the 2 labored collectively at a sizzling canine cart enterprise in Albuquerque. It’s unclear what motivated him to take action.
In his plea settlement, Keirans stated he’d run away from house at 16 and traveled throughout the nation. He stated he’d stolen a automobile in San Francisco and been arrested in Oregon however by no means appeared in courtroom.
After 1988, there was no document of Keirans ever utilizing his personal identify, date of delivery or Social Safety quantity, in line with his plea settlement.
As an alternative, he obtained employment, insurance coverage, a Social Safety quantity, driver’s licenses, titles, loans and credit score utilizing Woods’ id. He even paid taxes beneath his former co-worker’s identify.
Matthew David Keirans labored for years as a administrator on the Unversity of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa.
(Johnson County Jail)
Keirans’ fiction prolonged to his private life. He married in 1994. The couple had a toddler in Oregon who bore Woods’ final identify. To maintain his charade going, Keirans in 2012 obtained Woods’ licensed delivery certificates from Kentucky, utilizing data from Ancestry.com, in line with prosecutors.
He later bought a job — as Woods — working as a programs architect on the College of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. Keirans supplied the hospital with pretend identification paperwork, together with a fictitious I-9 kind, Social Safety quantity and date of delivery, in line with the plea settlement.
Keirans labored remotely from his house in Wisconsin and earned no less than $700,000 from the hospital over a 10-year interval. Between 2016 and 2022, he obtained automobile and private loans totaling greater than $200,000 from credit score unions beneath Woods’ identify.
On Aug. 20, 2019, Woods, whom prosecutors described as homeless, went to an L.A. department of a nationwide financial institution and advised the assistant department supervisor that he’d not too long ago found somebody was utilizing his credit score and had accrued a considerable amount of debt, in line with Keirans’ plea settlement. Woods requested his account numbers so he may shut the accounts.
Woods gave the assistant department supervisor his Social Safety card and his California ID. His identify 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 collection of safety questions, which he was unable to reply accurately, in line with courtroom information.
The financial institution worker then known as the quantity tied to the financial institution accounts. Keirans answered. He advised her nobody in California ought to have entry to his financial institution accounts. He accurately answered the safety questions. The assistant department supervisor known 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 data.
On Oct. 31, 2019, the district legal professional’s workplace charged Woods with two felonies, within the identify of “Matthew Kierans” — misspelling the actual id thief’s final identify. That day in courtroom, in line with courtroom reporter transcripts obtained by The Occasions, Woods advised the decide, “I’m not Matthew Keirans in any respect.” It’s unclear how Woods was linked to the id thief’s identify.
The prosecutor’s workplace stated the case had been filed beneath a earlier administration primarily based on police experiences in addition to body-worn digital camera video. As to why Woods was booked beneath the identify “Kierans,” a spokesperson for the workplace stated that was “unclear”; the LAPD didn’t specify how that got here to occur.
In February 2020, the decide discovered Woods was not mentally competent to face trial and ordered him to a psychiatric hospital. It additionally was ordered that he obtain psychotropic remedy.
A bit greater than eight months later, after quite a few delays due to mattress house and COVID-19 points, Woods was transported to Patton State Hospital, in line with a minute order from the courtroom.
“Individuals didn’t pay attention, and so they didn’t know I used to be who I stated I used to be,” Woods stated. “They had been portray it like I used to be loopy.”
Woods was convicted of felony costs 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 identify William Woods.
Woods stated he pleaded out so the case in opposition to him could be dismissed
The case later unraveled when Woods realized the place Keirans labored and contacted the Iowa Metropolis hospital’s safety division. They referred his grievance 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.
