William Woods was a sufferer of id theft, however he was the one jailed

No one believed William Woods.

They didn’t consider somebody used his social safety quantity to run up lots of of 1000’s of {dollars} in debt. They didn’t consider 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 id theft and false impersonation in alternate for a time-served sentence and fast 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 offender — Matthew David Keirans — pleaded responsible to creating a false assertion to a Nationwide Credit score Union Administration insured establishment and aggravated id theft, in keeping with 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, stated the division is conscious of the case and is “actively investigating.”

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

In a latest interview with The Occasions, Woods stated he’s contemplating submitting a lawsuit towards the 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 day-after-day I needed to keep there,” the 55-year-old stated. “It isn’t proper to be placing me in jail for nothing.”

A stolen id

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 stated, when Keirans was employed in 1988. The lads didn’t work together till Woods’ pockets went lacking. When Woods questioned Keirans in regards to the theft, he stated, the opposite man didn’t reply.

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

Woods stated he seemed contained in the pockets and his social safety card and beginning certificates have been nonetheless inside.

“I didn’t assume something of it,” Woods stated. “I didn’t assume he was truly going to do something.”

However, after 1988, there was no report of Keirans ever utilizing his personal title, date of beginning or social safety quantity, in keeping with 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’ id. He even paid taxes below 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 id.

The next September, Keirans, posing as Woods, purchased a automotive for $600 utilizing checks that later bounced, in keeping with the settlement. Because of this, 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 beginning certificates from Kentucky, utilizing info from Ancestry.com, in keeping with 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 methods architect on the College of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. Keirans supplied the hospital with faux identification paperwork, together with a fictitious I-9 type, social safety quantity and date of beginning, in keeping with the plea settlement.

Keirans labored remotely from his residence 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 below Woods’ title, totaling greater than $200,000.

The actual William Woods

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

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

He spent a number of years in San Diego, the place he stated he labored a tech job, earlier than transferring to Santa Monica in 2009. He stayed in accommodations and motels across the space and stated he offered gem stones, gold scraps or different gadgets 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 advised the assistant department supervisor that he’d lately found somebody was utilizing his credit score and had accrued a considerable amount of debt, in keeping with Keirans’ plea settlement. Woods requested his account numbers so he may 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 big quantities of cash within the accounts, the financial institution worker requested Woods a sequence of safety questions, which he was unable to reply appropriately, in keeping with courtroom information.

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

LAPD officers spoke with Keirans on the cellphone, and he later faxed them a replica of a social safety card, a Wisconsin driver’s license and the Kentucky beginning 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 actual id thief’s final title. That day in courtroom, in keeping 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 title.

Two months later, Woods once more advised the courtroom, “No, I’m not Keirans in any respect.” He requested for an additional legal professional. He stated he wished an investigator. He didn’t make sense at instances, saying the investigator was in Mexico and that he acquired a password, in keeping with the transcript.

“I’m sorry. Cease. You’ve received to cease,” the decide advised Woods, earlier than pulling the legal professionals apart.

“Your Honor, based mostly on my conversations with my shopper, and presently, I don’t consider that he’s competent, and I’m declaring a doubt,” Susana Juarez, Deputy Alternate Public Defender, stated quickly after.

The decide suspended prison proceedings and stated a psychiatrist could be appointed.

“I wish to discuss to the FBI,” Woods stated.

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

“I need some brokers to return down right here,” Woods stated.

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

A bit of greater than eight months later, after quite a few delays due to bedspace and COVID-19 points, Woods was transported to Patton State Hospital, in keeping 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 have been portray it like I used to be loopy.”

All through that point, in keeping with the plea settlement, Keirans stored 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 could 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, in keeping with 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 stated he pleaded out so the case towards him could be dismissed.

“At first I stored saying, ‘I’m not responsible,’ however they wouldn’t consider that,” Woods stated. “They wouldn’t consider it.”

A DNA take a look at

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

A picture introduced as courtroom proof reveals 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 id, in keeping with the plea settlement. That very same month, Keirans filed a grievance falsely claiming that Woods had stolen his id.

Woods then filed buyer disputes in an try to clear his credit score report, in keeping with the settlement. Keirans filed a second id theft grievance with the native police and later submitted a notarized assertion in assist of his declare.

In January 2023, 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 beginning certificates. The take a look at proved that Woods was his father’s son.

When Mallory interviewed Keirans, he advised Mallory that Woods was “loopy” and “wanted assist and must be locked up.” Mallory requested Keirans for his father’s title and Keirans mistakenly gave the primary title of his personal adoptive father, in keeping with the plea settlement.

Mallory then confronted Keirans with the DNA proof. Keirans responded by saying, “my life is over,” and “all the pieces 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, recognized to me as Dad.”

Beginning over

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

Woods spoke of corrupt cops and politicians throughout the nation. He insisted that LAPD officers had recognized he was the actual 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 stated “further info concerning this case isn’t at present obtainable.”

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 wish to meet.” He added that individuals would benefit from Woods.

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

“I believe that since individuals have been benefiting from him over time, all these names stick in his head,” Kilmer advised The Occasions. “He’s simply making an attempt 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 present staying in a good friend’s van in El Paso.

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

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