A person who beforehand labored as a high-level IT administrator for an Iowa hospital has been convicted in a meticulous and convoluted identification theft scheme that went on for greater than three a long time, ultimately inflicting his sufferer’s wrongful imprisonment, authorities stated.
William Woods was homeless and dwelling in Los Angeles in 2019, when he realized that somebody was racking up debt utilizing his identify. However when he reported his issues to the department supervisor of a financial institution, he wound up spending almost two years locked up, accused of identification theft himself. As he continued to insist he was Woods in a determined effort to clear his identify, he was even despatched to a state psychological hospital and drugged, courtroom information present.
Lastly, final week, the previous hospital administrator at College of Iowa hospital, who had assumed Woods’ identification for many years, pleaded responsible to 2 federal fees.
That man, 58-year-old Matthew David Keirans, who lived in Hartland, Wisconsin, was convicted of creating false statements to a Nationwide Credit score Union Administration insured establishment and aggravated establish theft, in response to an announcement by the US Lawyer’s Workplace for Iowa’s northern district. The costs carry a most sentence of as much as 32 years in imprisonment, together with a $1.25 million positive and 5 years of obligatory supervised launch after any time period in jail, the workplace stated.
Ryan J. Foley / AP
A sentencing date has not been set within the federal case, however Keirans spent 20 days in jail final 12 months on associated state fees in Iowa.
In the meantime, a listening to is about for subsequent week in California to vacate Woods’ conviction, stated Venusse Dunn, a spokesperson within the Los Angeles County District Lawyer’s Workplace.
Courtroom information present the 2 males first met once they each labored at a scorching canine cart in Albuquerque, New Mexico, within the late Nineteen Eighties.
There isn’t a file of Keirans utilizing his personal identify or social safety quantity after 1988, and he began to publicly assume the identify William Woods in 1990, courtroom paperwork present.
Federal prosecutors have offered no details about what precipitated the identify change, stated Tony Morfitt, a spokesperson for the U.S. lawyer in northern Iowa. The information point out Kierans had a rocky childhood, operating away from dwelling at 16, touring throughout the nation, stealing a automotive in San Francisco and getting arrested in Oregon, however by no means showing in courtroom.
Through the years, he married and had a baby, all as Woods. He used a family tree web site to analysis Woods’ household historical past and used that data to fraudulently obtained a duplicate of Woods’ Kentucky beginning certificates, federal prosecutors stated.
Kierans used Woods’ ID to get his job on the College of Iowa Hospital in Iowa Metropolis in 2013, in response to the U.S. lawyer’s workplace. The workplace stated he submitted false identification paperwork to the hospital whereas the hiring course of was underway, together with a faux I-9 type, Social Safety quantity and date of beginning, amongst different paperwork in Woods’ identify.
Whereas he labored remotely for the hospital from his dwelling in Wisconsin, authorities stated that Keirans “was the important thing administrator of essential programs” inside the hospital’s on-line infrastructure and had such seniority within the position that his entry privileges had been the very best they could possibly be. Information of his conviction comes amid ongoing issues over information breaches focusing on hospital programs and well being care networks.
Later, between August 2016 and Could 2022, Kierans used Woods’ identification to acquire a collection of loans via credit score unions within the state totaling greater than $200,000, prosecutors stated.
Upon studying in regards to the debt in 2019, Woods walked right into a Los Angeles department of a nationwide financial institution the place Kierans had maintained ongoing deposits. He stated he did not need to pay the debt and sought to shut the accounts that Keirans had opened in his identify.
He offered his social safety card, in addition to his California ID. However the accounts had some huge cash in them, so the department supervisor requested the true Woods a collection of safety questions. Unable to reply them, the financial institution known as police, courtroom information say.
Keirans, who was listed as Woods on the account, instructed police he did not give anybody in California permission to entry his financial institution accounts. He then faxed police a collection of fraudulently acquired identification paperwork, courtroom information present.
Police arrested Woods and charged him with identification theft and false impersonation. They insisted that Woods was really known as Matthew Kierans, misspelling his tormentor’s identify. Courtroom paperwork don’t clarify how police linked Woods or the financial institution accounts to that identify.
Police in Los Angeles confirmed to The Related Press that Woods was arrested however declined to remark additional.
As a result of Woods repeatedly disputed the identification authorities foisted upon him, a California choose discovered him not mentally competent to face trial and despatched him to a state psychological hospital, the place he acquired psychotropic medicine.
The true Keirans known as police and prosecutors periodically because the case progressed. Advised at one level that the case was on maintain till Woods regained psychological competence, courtroom information present that Keirans responded: “That is assuming he does.”
Woods spent 428 days in county jail and 147 days within the psychological hospital earlier than he was launched after agreeing to a no-contest plea. He was ordered to pay $400 in fines and to cease utilizing the identify William Woods.
However as a substitute of stopping, Woods continued to push to regain his identification. One subject was that California was trying to recoup bills from his time on the psychological hospital, courtroom information present.
Keirans complained in a single electronic mail to prosecutors in Los Angeles that Woods had filed 30 disputes on his credit score report and he simply spent two hours “clearing all that up.” He continued: “I would like some recommendation on what steps to take at this level.”
Undeterred, Woods reached out to the College of Iowa Hospital, the place Keirans was incomes greater than $100,000 a 12 months. Safety there referred Woods’ grievance to College of Iowa Police.
Keirans initially insisted in an interview that the sufferer was “loopy” and “wanted assist and needs to be locked up,” federal prosecutors stated.
However a detective tracked down the organic father listed on Woods’ beginning certificates and examined the daddy’s DNA towards Woods’ DNA. The check proved Woods was the person’s son.
When police confronted Keirans in regards to the DNA proof, he stated: “My life is over” and “Every little thing is gone.”
Woods has not responded to the AP’s efforts to hunt remark through a courtroom liaison who works with victims, and the general public defender’s workplace in Los Angeles did not reply to emails.
AP additionally known as individuals believed to be kin of Woods, however nobody known as again. One individual texted again a single phrase: “Cease.”
The information surprised Keirans’ household and mates. Letters written to the courtroom on his behalf described him as a great father, variety and reliable.
“I consider Matt’s motivation was easy: to create the household and residential he didn’t have in his youth,” wrote his spouse of 30 years, Nancy Zimmer, who described him working to assist her as she earned a doctorate in theology.
Their grownup son recognized himself as “the son of Matthew Keirans, previously often called William Woods — in both case, identified to me as Dad.”