A man who was arrested and locked up for two years after complaining that his identity had been stolen more than 30 years ago, was finally exonerated and pronounced ‘factually innocent’ Thursday in a Los Angeles courtroom.
LA Superior Court Judge William Ryan called the case ‘astounding’ and ‘Kafka-esque’ as he declared William Woods, 55, officially a free man who was wrongly convicted of crimes he did not commit.
Woods – who is threatening to bring a lawsuit against police and prosecutors – did not appear at the brief hearing in downtown LA criminal. Instead he called into the hearing by phone but said nothing during the proceeding.
Nor did his attorney, public defender Michael Schensul, want to say anything on his client’s behalf, offering only, ‘I have no comment.’
In what LA District Attorney George Gascon called ‘a diabolical turn of events’, Woods was a victim of identity theft – but it was he who ended up behind bars while the man who stole his identity, Matthew Keirans, impersonated him for more than three decades, running up more than $200,000 in loans taken out in Woods’ name.
William Woods, 55, has been exonerated after being arrested and spending two years behind bars for complaining that his identity had been stolen over 30 years ago
Woods’ attorney, Michael Schensul, declined to comment at Thursday’s proceeding
Deputy District Attorney Kathryn Albracht went to court Thursday to right this wrong, filing a motion that asked Ryan ‘to set aside Wood’s wrongful conviction…and to make a finding of factual innocence.’
The judge did just that, telling Woods, ‘I am more than happy to sign this order… and find that new evidence proves Mr. Woods innocent of the crimes he was convicted of.
The judge said he found it ‘astounding that ‘even Woods’ own lawyer didn’t believe him’ when he protested his innocence at the time he was charged. ‘It’s almost Kafka-esque,’ he added.
Police finally caught up with the real identity thief Matthew Kierans, 58, who is now facing up to 32 years in prison.
In its motion to clear Woods’ name Thursday, the LA DA wrote, ‘Approximately 35 years ago, Matthew Keirans stole the identity of William Woods.
‘Impersonating Woods, Keirans obtained, among other things, a driver’s license, a social security number, loans, insurance and credit.
‘Kieran’s married his wife using Woods’ identity and gave his son Woods’ last name. Keirans opened bank accounts with US Bank. He opened those accounts with his wife and son.
‘In a diabolical turn of events, when, in 2019, Woods became aware of fraudulent bank accounts opened in his name and tried to close those accounts and clear his name, Woods was arrested for identity theft.
‘When bank employees contacted Keirans, Keirans falsely claimed that Woods had stolen his identity when indeed the opposite was true.’
Deputy District Attorney Kathryn Albracht had filed a motion that asked the judge ‘to set aside Wood’s wrongful conviction…and to make a finding of factual innocence’
Matthew Keirans, 58, faces up to 32 years in prison for stealing the identity of Woods in 1988 when they worked a hot dog stand together
LA Superior Court Judge William Ryan described the case, which saw Keirans marry his wife using Woods’ identity and give his son Woods’ last name, as ‘Kafka-esque’
Based on ‘Keirans’ continued lies’ Woods spent two years in custody – including five months in state mental hospital – while his case was pending and in 2021, after entering a no-contest plea to two felony charges of identity theft and false personation, he was sentenced to two years in county jail. That was the time he’d already been locked up so he was released on ‘time served.’
The saga of Woods’ stolen identity began in 1988 in Albuquerque, New Mexico where he and Keirans were both working on a hot dog stand.
When Woods’ wallet went missing one day, he suspected Keirans and when he confronted him, he told the LA Times, ‘I put my fist in his face, and he decided to hand me back my wallet.’
Checking the contents, he noticed his Social Security and birth certificate were still safely inside. But still, Kierans went on to steal Woods’ name and identity and used it ‘in every aspect of his life’ for the next three decades, according to court documents.
In 1990, Keirans got a fake Colorado ID using Woods’ name and birthday and got a job at a fast-food restaurant and a Colorado bank account.
He bought a car for $600 in 1991, also using Woods’ name, with two $300 checks that bounced.
Keirans drove to Idaho where the stolen car broke down and he abandoned it, withdrawing all of his money from the Colorado account and leaving the state.
From there, his fraud ramped up and in 1994, still using Woods’ name, Keirans got married and had a child, who he gave the surname Woods.
He then moved to Wisconsin and obtained a copy of Woods’ birth certificate using information about his family he found on Ancestry.com.
In 2013, he got a job as a systems architect in the the University of Iowa Hospital’s IT department.
He worked there for the next 10 years, earning more than $700,000 in total, and by 2023, his salary was $140,501, according to the hospital.
Over the years he took out multiple vehicle and personal loans from Iowa credit unions under Woods’ name, worth more than $200,000.
All this time, the real Woods was living homeless in Los Angeles.
Kierans used his former coworker’s identity ‘in every aspect of his life’ for three decades. He eventually confessed to prolonged identity theft in 2023
The two worked together at a hot dog stand in Albuquerque, New Mexico (not pictured here) in 1988 and did not interact until Woods’ wallet went missing
In August 2019, Woods went to a Los Angeles branch of US Bank and said he had discovered someone was using his bank accounts and had accumulated debt, and asked to close the accounts.
He gave the bank his ID and his social security number, which matched the information the bank had, but he couldn’t answer the security questions that Keirans had set up.
The bank called the number they had on file for him – Keirans’ number – and Keiran answered the security questions, telling the bank employees that no one in California had permission to access his accounts.
The bank employee called LAPD who questioned Woods and Keirans. After Keirans sent LAPD officers a copy of his Social Security card, Woods was arrested and charged with identity theft and false personation.
During court appearances for his pending case, he repeatedly told the judge, ‘I’m not Matthew Keirans at all.’
‘People didn’t listen, and they didn’t know I was who I said I was,’ Woods told the LA Times. ‘They were painting it like I was crazy.’
In February 2020, he was found to be not mentally competent to stand trial and was ordered to a psychiatric hospital. It was also ordered that he receive psychotropic medication.
After being eventually released from custody, Woods was determined to get to the bottom of what had happened.
Keirans, in the meantime, had landed a job as a systems architect in the the University of Iowa Hospital’s IT department.
He worked there for the next 10 years, earning more than $700,000 in total, and by 2023, his salary was $140,501, according to the hospital.
Woods managed to find out where Keirans was working and in January 2023 he contacted the hospital’s security department.
The hospital referred his complaint to the University of Iowa Police Department, where Detective Ian Mallory opened an investigation.
Mallory found Woods’ biological father and tested his DNA against Woods’ and Keirans’. The DNA proved Woods was who he said he was and Keirans was a fraud.
Based on Keirans’ ‘continued lies,’ Woods spent two years in custody, including five months in a state mental hospital
Woods became aware of fraudulent bank accounts opened in his name in 2019 and tried to close them – but he was arrested for identity theft
In July 2023, more than 30 years after Keirans first stole Woods’ identity, Mallory interviewed him.
He asked him what his father’s name was and Keirans accidentally gave the name of his own adoptive father.
Mallory then confronted Keirans with the DNA evidence and he responded saying ‘my life is over’ and ‘everything is gone’.
He then confessed to prolonged identity theft, according to court documents, and was taken into custody on July 18 2023.
Keirans pleaded guilty to false use of birth certificate and the other charge was dropped.
He was then indicted in federal court on December 12, on five counts of false statement to a National Credit Union Administration insured institution and two counts of aggravated identity theft.
He pleaded guilty to one count of each charge and the other counts were dropped.
A sentencing has not yet been scheduled. He is currently in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service, and faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 2 years in prison and a possible maximum sentence of 32 years’ imprisonment, a $1.25 million fine, and five years of supervised release following any imprisonment.
Last year, Woods moved back to Albuquerque where he lived in a hotel and now stays with a friend in El Paso.
His former boss at the hot dog business Eric Kilmer described Woods as the ‘most innocent type fellow you’ll ever want to meet.’
Woods, talking about the possibility of bringing a lawsuit, told the LA Times, ‘They should pay for every day I was in there . It isn’t right to be putting me in jail for nothing.’
And when asked what he’ll do now that he’s proved his innocence, he added, ‘I guess I have to regain all my stuff back and just rebuild what I was.’