A former hospital administrator has pleaded guilty to stealing the identity of a former colleague over a 30-year period, resulting in the man being sent to a psychiatric hospital.
Matthew David Keirans, 58, stole the identity of hot dog vendor William Donald Woods when the two worked together in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in the late 1980s. According to the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Iowa.
Kaylands, who most recently resided in Hartland, Wisconsin, pleaded guilty Monday to one count of aggravated identity theft and one count of false statements to a National Credit Union Administration insurance institution.
Mr. Woods eventually became homeless.
He was thrown into Los Angeles County Jail in 2019 after entering a California bank and reporting to the branch manager that someone had recently racked up a large amount of debt in his name.
Mr. Woods asked for the account in question to be closed so he would not have to pay the debt, but was unable to answer a series of confidential questions posed by the bank manager.
Despite presenting a valid Social Security card and identification, the bank called police and Mr. Woods was arrested.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, between August 2016 and May 2022, the Keilans used Woods’ name, date of birth and Social Security number to make eight purchases from credit unions in northern Iowa worth more than $200,000. had received a loan.
Kaylans also married in 1994 using Woods’ name and had a child with Woods’ last name. According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
When police contacted the Kieran home in Wisconsin, where Woods had lived for 15 years, about Mr. Woods’ attempt to close his bank account, Mr. Woods told police that he did not allow anyone in California to access his account. He said he did not allow access to the Los Angeles Police Department and faxed a fake document from the Los Angeles Police Department.
Woods was charged with two felonies and held in the county jail without bail.
He was ultimately found unfit to stand trial and was ordered admitted to a psychiatric hospital and placed on psychotropic medication, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
In March 2021, Woods pleaded “no contest” and was released from prison on time.
“In total, Mr. Keilan’s victims spent 428 days in county jail and 147 days in a psychiatric hospital as a result of Mr. Keilan’s false reports to the LAPD and LADA,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
When Woods was released from prison, he was falsely told to only use his “real name, Matthew Kierans,” from now on, the U.S. attorney’s statement said.
After his release, Woods made numerous attempts to regain his identity, and Keelans repeatedly made false reports to police in Wisconsin and California to keep Woods away.
Woods discovered in January 2023 that the Keilans worked at the University of Iowa Hospital, where they were earning $140,000 a year, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. Mr. Woods contacted the hospital’s security department, who relayed his request to the local police department.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, investigating detectives spent months unraveling Kierans’ plan, including through DNA evidence that showed he was not biologically related to Woods’ father, who lives in Kentucky.
Six months after the report, detectives interviewed Mr. Kierans and claimed that Mr. Woods was “crazy” and “needed help and should be locked up.”
However, after being pressed about the DNA evidence, Keirans admitted to the scheme and to providing false documents to police.
Mr. Kaylands remains in federal custody pending sentencing.
He faces a possible sentence of at least two years and up to 32 years in prison.
He also faces a $1.25 million fine, according to U.S. prosecutors.
