Former University of Iowa hospital employee used fake identity for 35 years

[achow]

> University of Iowa Police Detective Ian Mallory.. tested the father’s DNA against Woods’ DNA. The test proved Woods was the man’s son.

Such an obvious thing to do.

Why it had to reach to University police for this to be initiated, why LA police did not do this at the start? Why the judge who sent the real Woods to mental hospital asked this to be done before giving that 'judgement'?

[coderintherye]

>Because Woods continued to insist, throughout the judicial process, that he was William Woods and not Matthew Kierans, a judge ruled in February 2020 that he was not mentally competent to stand trial and he was sent to a mental hospital in California, where he received psychotropic medication and other mental health treatment.

That's the stuff of nightmares. I hope the real Woods sues the system that put him through this.

[ChrisMarshallNY]

From what I read (in the Ars Technica story on this), the real Woods seems to be in fairly bad shape. At least homeless, maybe mentally challenged. It seems that may have happened, even if his identity had not been stolen, but I am not aware enough of the story's details, to render any kind of semi-authoritative judgment.

It's highly likely that at least one lawyer is already salivating over this, and will help him to sue, but I’m not confident that the real Woods will benefit.

This was a nightmare story, and I would hope that the fake Woods gets real jail time.

[Cthulhu_]

"I'm not crazy!" "That's what a crazy person would say!"

Honestly once you're at the whims of an overzealous psychologist you're boned. Potentially. I hope the real Woods gets to sue everyone involved in declaring him mentally incompetent, that declaration took away his rights as a human being.

[lupusreal]

Forcibly medicating a man for insisting on his innocence, even if his guilt seems certain, is another nightmarish aspect of this situation. By all means imprison the guy, but forcing him onto mind altering drugs because he refuses to admit his guilt is over the line.

[Ekaros]

Sadly the system never gets punished. I think these judges and prosecutors would do much better if there was ever present risk of either life in prison or even death penalty.

[koolba]

> That's the stuff of nightmares. I hope the real Woods sues the system that put him through this.

On the positive side, if he was using his social security number for 35 years, he’ll be fully paid up for the real Woods to draw at retirement.

[cqqxo4zV46cp]

My (non-American) reaction to this was immediately “that’s so American”. It’s just absurd. I would not put the actual thief at the top of the list if who’s to blame there. That is clearly a cultural / systems issue, through and through.

[op00to]

The real woods should reap all the benefits of the false woods’ misdeeds with none of the consequences. Get his house, car, job, even wife!

[CogitoCogito]

> The real Woods was arrested and charged with identity theft and false impersonation, under a misspelling of Keirans’ name: Matthew Kierans.

Are they saying that they thought the real Woods was actually Matthew Keirans? How did they conclude that? The article is full of evidence of how the real Matthew Keirans had been pretending that he’s actually William Woods, but what evidence was there connecting the real William Woods to the name Matthew Keirans? It’s not like the real Woods would have any (fake) documentation attesting to it. Why would there be anything connecting him to the name at all?

I could see them charging him as a John Doe since they don’t know who he is but “know” he’s not William Woods but I don’t understand why they would charge him as Matthew Keirans.

[smeej]

Came here wondering the same thing. It's not like Woods would even had a reason to come up with Keirans' name, so did Keirans provide it when the bank was investigating? Like, "Oh, I'll bet I know who you're talking to. I'll bet it's Matthew Keirans. We've had issues in the past"?

If I were Keirans, I wouldn't even want to bring the Keirans name anywhere near Woods, lest someone realize they were switched. I'd have acted like I had no idea who might be pretending to be me.

So how did Keirans' name end up associated with Wood when he was arrested and charged?

[wolverine876]

What happened to Woods since it was uncovered? The story doesn't tell us. It showed great courage to keep fighting, even when effectively powerless.

[pbj1968]

I worked with a guy that had falsified some records to hide some misdeeds in his younger years. He made it 19 years before something unrelated forced us to do thorough background checks on our employees. He was escorted off the premises by police and his benefits voided by HR.

All I’m saying is… at some point you got away with it. We did him dirty.

[fwipsy]

What makes this story interesting is that he built a more valuable identity than the real William Woods did. This court case destroyed that value, as the hospital likely won't employ either of them, even though presumably Keirans was doing an acceptable job up until now. Perhaps the smart thing for Keirans to do would have been to find Woods and pay him to swap identities. I wonder if anyone's ever pulled that off?

[croes]

>causing the other man to be falsely imprisoned for identity theft and sent to a mental hospital.

To me that is the bigger crime. How comes the government can't recognize who is the real Woods and imprisons the wrong person?

[carbocation]

None of the petty crimes he was wanted for seemed worth the effort he put into maintaining the false identity. It makes me wonder whether there is more to uncover.

[Ballas]

Probably just unfortunate timing when he met his wife, and then had to keep using the name for fear of losing his wife/girlfriend?

[croes]

Maybe just the crime of the identity theft itself.

Preventing 30 years of jail time is a big motivation.

[P_I_Staker]

You might be shocked how quickly it becomes "I'm an outlaw that can't exist normally in society"

It doesn't seem that way to you, but it's shocking the jobs that will be choosy. Things are a bit different now, changing culture, labor shortages, etc.

However especially ~1990s-2010ish, the mindset was "as long as there are people out there without issues, we will hire from that pool of candidates". So practically having more than a parking ticket could result in mass rejection from jobs. Sorry, but we have 20 candidates with NO parking tickets, so get lost.

[csomar]

He is already in too deep with this. He already has a family, job and probably a mortgage. A full situation in which everyone think he is "Woods".

[nytesky]

Agreed. He must have done something terrible and was running from it.

[livinginfear]

I think I'm missing something here. What did he have to gain from doing this? I understand that he was able to incur large amounts of debt under someone else's identity, but at that point he effectively was Woods. He was married under that name, he was employed under that name... If the authorities ever came looking for the Woods that incurred all the debt, it would be him that paid.

[AlgoRitmo]

He probably couldn’t get a real job with his true identity.

[AnarchismIsCool]

Can I just point out the hilarious disparity of punishment in this statement:

>Matthew David Keirans, 58, was convicted of one count of false statement to a National Credit Union Administration insured institution — punishable by up to 30 years in federal prison — and one count of aggravated identity theft — punishable by up to two years in federal prison.

[n2d4]

That's because "aggravated identity theft" can never be the only crime you are convicted for. It is always dependent on another felony. The identity theft just adds two years on-top of whatever the other crime would've gotten you.

Here, of course the two extra years don't matter, but if you commit identity theft to steal your grandma's candies, I don't think you should be getting 30 years in prison.

Relevant: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1028A

[elteto]

> He was indicted Dec. 12, on five counts of false statement to a National Credit Union Administration insured institution and two counts of aggravated identity theft.

It's actually 6 years max per false statement charge, so in total 30 years.

[stef25]

As a European it's baffling to me that this is even possible. Afaik this is close to impossible here. Everyone has a mandatory ID card with a chip on it that's used to identify you. Maybe it sounds dystopian but so is getting drugged up in a mental hospital in a case of mistaken identity ... I mean WTAF. Not that these wild exception should determine the rule either.

[sva_]

> Everyone has a mandatory ID card with a chip on it that's used to identify you.

Or you just get rid of your documents, claim to be a refugee, and just fabricate all the data.

[tyingq]

I suspect the US system where each of the 50 US states have their own rules for birth certificates, id cards, etc, is the big reason.

So, for example, you can craft fake id for one state...and it doesn't have to be good enough to fool anyone in that state. Just good enough to fool any one of the other 49. Which you then can bootstrap into a "real id" from that second state.

Especially given this happened decades ago. It has become much harder over time.

[mixmastamyk]

Oh, a chip. Must be foolproof, right? ;-)

[Macha]

> Everyone has a mandatory ID card with a chip on it that's used to identify you.

Only in some European countries

[tim333]

In the UK we don't have mandatory ID and also seem to manage to not bang people up like that.

[benrapscallion]

Dupe: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39924309

[neilv]

Which is a dupe of: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39919646

[smeej]

I like to think my commitment to the truth is high enough to do what Woods did and stand up for my identity, but honestly after getting out of jail and a mental institution for insisting I was Woods, I might just accept being Keirans from now on. How could it be worse than risking being sent back?

[cbsmith]

You'd be Kierans. ;-)

That was such an ironic twist to the story.

[pqs]

I think that in Spain, or any other country with a national ID card, this would be mucho more difficult. Police has fingerprints of everyone. In case someone says someone else is using his identity, the police just need to check the fingerprint with the national ID database.

[kelnos]

That was a pretty wild story, but honestly what disturbed me the most was right near the beginning:

> one count of false statement to a National Credit Union Administration insured institution — punishable by up to 30 years in federal prison — and one count of aggravated identity theft — punishable by up to two years in federal prison.

So you get 30 years for lying to a bank, but only two years for stealing someone's identity for decades, resulting in the real person being involuntarily committed to a mental institution just for insisting they are who they actually are?

It should be the other way around. Two years for the lie, 30 years for the identity theft.

[n2d4]

That's because "aggravated identity theft" can never be the only crime you are convicted for. It is always dependent on another felony. The identity theft just adds two years on-top of whatever the other crime would've gotten you.

Here, of course the two extra years don't matter, but if you commit identity theft to steal your grandma's candies, I don't think you should be getting 30 years in prison.

Relevant: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1028A

[bdowling]

It wasn’t just any bank, it was a bank insured by the U.S. government. The U.S. government does not take being lied to lightly.

By the way, anyone who has applied for a mortgage in the U.S. has seen many, many warnings about how lying on a mortgage application is a federal crime that carries very serious penalties.

[sverhagen]

What strikes me here is that they get thirty years for this at all. What he did was absolutely horrible, but a thirty year sentence seems excessive. That's, as I understand it, more than other countries give you for murder. This was a non-violent (albeit terrible) crime.

[elteto]

> He was indicted Dec. 12, on five counts of false statement to a National Credit Union Administration insured institution and two counts of aggravated identity theft.

5 charges for a total of 30 years, so 6 years max per charge. Much more reasonable than 30 for a single one.

[siva7]

> In 1994 — six years after he started using Woods’ name — Keirans got married. He had a child, whose last name is Woods.

I wonder what goes around in the mind of the SO to accept that he couldn’t have shown anything from his past live.

[jeffbee]

Which of these guys gets the social security benefits?

[kazinator]

The strange thing is that Kierans used Woods' identity since 1988, but somehow didn't cause Woods enough trouble to the point of getting him arrested until thirty years later. The situation took curiously long to come to a head.

[nytesky]

Suddenly, the government having my DNA record seems less terrible. I’m only half kidding…

[nytesky]

Woods was an employee at a hot dog stand, why did he steal his identity?

[beepboopboop]

Probably a clean record