A wrongly imprisoned former hot dog vendor who was the victim of a 30-year identity theft case is speaking out and threatening to sue the city that imprisoned him.
William Woods spent 428 days in prison and 147 days in hospital after being found unfit to stand trial because a judge ruled he had a distorted perception of his identity.
“They should pay for every day I had to stay there,” Woods said. Los Angeles Times. “It’s not right to put me in jail for no reason.”
Woods had been working at a hot dog cart in Albuquerque, New Mexico, for years when Matthew Kierans was hired in 1988.
The two reportedly got into a physical altercation after the Kierans stole Woods’ wallet.
“I punched him in the face and he decided to give me his wallet back,” Woods told the outlet, but did not punch Keilans.
Woods, now 55, wasn’t too worried about theft at work because she made sure everything, including her Social Security card and birth certificate, was in her wallet.
“I didn’t think anything about it,” Woods said. “I didn’t think he was actually going to do anything.”
But Kierans spent the next 40 years as William David Woods, racking up hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt and buying cars in the names of unsuspecting victims.
Keilans got the stolen new name so he could do whatever he wanted, including a new life in Colorado, and in 1994, while married and having a child, he went to the University of Iowa Hospital under Woods’ name. got a job. Clinics that earn at least $700,000.
After finishing working at a hot dog stand, Woods recalled flying around the country looking for odd jobs, including working as a day laborer in El Paso and at a laundromat in Las Vegas, before landing in Southern California.
Woods worked in technology and started living in San Diego before moving to Santa Monica in 2009, where she stayed in local hotels and motels and sold jewelry, including jewelry and scrap gold, she found on the street. he told the paper.
Ten years later, Woods discovered that someone had taken advantage of his credit and amassed large amounts of debt in his name.
Scam victims had requested that their accounts be closed, but were unable to answer the security questions set on William Woods’ account.
The skeptical banker finally called the number associated with the account, and Kaylans answered the phone and answered all the security questions correctly, informing the bank that no one could access the account in California. I told you.
Keirans also faxed copies of her Social Security card, Wisconsin driver’s license, and Kentucky birth certificate that she had created using information from Ancestry.com.
The Los Angeles Police Department determined that Kierans’ documents were legitimate and arrested Woods on suspicion of fraudulent use of personal information.
Woods was sentenced by the District Attorney’s Office to two felonies under the misspelled name of the actual identity thief, “Matthew Kierans.”
“People didn’t listen and they didn’t know I was who I said I was,” Woods said. “They were painting it like I was crazy.”
“At first I kept saying, ‘I’m not guilty,’ but they didn’t believe me,” Woods said. “They won’t believe it.”
He was convicted of a felony in 2021, where he was released without contest.
After his release, in 2023, Woods successfully contacted the University of Iowa Police Department, which hired a detective to speak with Keirans.
When confronted by detectives who had already conducted DNA tests on Woods and his father, Keilans initially lied, calling Woods “crazy” and “needs help and should be locked up.”
Kaylanth was then informed of the real DNA test and knew his plan was over.
“My life is over” and “everything is gone,” Cayrans said, according to the LA Times.
Eric Kilmer, who hired Woods to work at a hot dog stand in the 1980s, described Woods as “the most innocent type of person you’d ever want to meet.”
During an interview with the paper, Woods continued to ramble on and on, saying that police were involved in an identity fraud scheme, that they wanted to put him in jail, or that he was colluding with bankers to “put me in jail on purpose.” He is reported to have made groundless theories such as,
Woods also reportedly threw out random names during the interview.
Like Woods, Kilmer believes his former employees are traumatized by the number of people who took advantage of them.
“I think all these names stuck in his head because people have taken advantage of him over time,” Kilmer told the Times. “I think he’s just trying to piece everything together in his head.”
Woods is now living in a friend’s van in Albuquerque, looking for a brighter future.
“What’s next?” he asked. “I think I need to take everything back and rebuild myself.”
A motion to vacate Woods’ conviction has been filed, and a hearing is scheduled for Thursday.
