A former hospital administrator pled guilty to stealing his former colleague’s identity for three decades, which led to the man getting thrown into a mental hospital.
Matthew David Keirans, 58, stole hot dog vendor William Donald Woods’ identity in the late 1980s while the pair worked together in Albuquerque, New Mexico, according to the US Attorney for the Northern District of Iowa.
Keirans, who most recently resided in Hartland, Wisconsin, pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated identity theft and one count of false statement to a National Credit Union Administration-insured institution on Monday.
Woods eventually became homeless.
He was tossed into the Los Angeles County Jail in 2019 after he entered a bank in California and reported to the branch manager that someone had recently run up large amounts of debt in his name.
Woods asked to close the account in question so he wouldn’t have to pay the debt, but was unable to answer a series of security questions posed by the bank manager.
And despite presenting his valid Social Security card and identification, the bank called police and Woods was arrested.
Between August 2016 and May 2022, Keirans obtained eight loans worth more than $200,000 from credit unions in northern Iowa using Woods’ name, birthdate and Social Security number, the US Attorney’s office said.
Keirans also got married using Woods’ name in 1994 and had a child with the last name of Woods, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
When police contacted Keirans in Wisconsin — where he had lived for 15 years — about Woods’ efforts to close the bank account, he told cops he hadn’t authorized anyone in California to access his accounts and faxed the LAPD fake documents.
Woods was booked on two felony counts and held without bail in the county jail.
He was eventually found not fit for trial and ordered to enter a mental hospital and to take psychotropic medication, the US Attorney’s Office said.
In March 2021, Woods pleaded “no contest” and was released from jail on time served.
“In total, Keirans’ victim spent 428 days in county jail and 147 days in the mental hospital as a result of Keirans’ false reports to the LAPD and LADA,” the US Attorney’s office said.
Woods was also erroneously told when he was released to use only his “true name, Matthew Keirans” in the future, the US Attorney’s statement said.
Following his release, Woods attempted to regain his identity numerous times and Keirans made multiple false reports with Wisconsin and California police to keep the man away.
Woods figured out in January 2023 that Keirans worked at the University of Iowa Hospital, where he made $140,000 a year, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. Woods contacted the hospital’s security department, which referred his request to the local police department.
For several months, the investigating detective unraveled Kierans’ scheme, including through DNA evidence that found he had no biological connection to Woods’ father in Kentucky, the US Attorney’s office said.
Six months after the report, the detective talked to Keirans, who insisted Woods was “crazy” and “needed help and should be locked up.”
However, after being pressured about the DNA evidence, Keirans admitted to the scheme and to providing police with false documents.
Keirans, whose sentence is pending, remains in federal custody.
He faces a mandatory minimum of two years and a maximum sentence of 32 years behind bars.
He also faces a $1.25 million fine, the US Attorney’s office said.
