Man incarcerated, institutionalized after Wis. man stole his identity 36 years ago
A stolen identity victim was imprisoned, institutionalized and considered “crazy” after pleading his case that a Hartland, Wisconsin, man stole his name and Social Security number when the two worked together at a hot dog cart in Albuquerque, New Mexico, 36 years ago.
Matthew David Keirans, 58, has been living in Hartland for at least the last 15 years but has been using the name William Donald Woods. According to prosecutors, Keirans has been using Woods’ name, for insurance, loans, credit, driver’s licenses, and even paid taxes in the false name.
Keirans obtained remote employment in the IT department at the University of Iowa Hospital, where he made over $140,000 a year, using Woods’ identity. He pleaded guilty in federal court in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on Monday to two counts related to the identity theft scheme.
In 2019, the real William Woods, who had been homeless at the time, tried to report it to a bank in Los Angeles, but after presenting his real ID and Social Security card to the manager, he failed to correctly answer security questions from the bank and the manager called the Los Angeles Police Department.
LAPD called Keirans back in Wisconsin and Keirans told police that he hadn’t given anyone in California access to the accounts and even faxed phony identification documents to the LAPD, prosecutors said.
The LAPD arrested the real Woods, and prosecutors charged him in Keirans’ name and held him without bail at the Los Angeles County Jail. What followed was months of court proceedings where the real Woods would beg with authorities that they had the wrong person. A California judge ruled that Woods was not mentally competent to stand trial because he kept saying he wasn’t Keirans, and the judge placed the real Woods in a state-run psychiatric facility. He was also prescribed medication, records show.
In March 2021, Woods pleaded no contest to two felony charges and was released on time served. He spent 147 days in the mental hospital, in addition to 428 days in county jail, for a total of 575 days institutionalized. As a parting gift, a California court ordered the real Woods to go by “Matthew Keirans” in the future, prosecutors said.
For the next two years, Woods tried to reclaim his identity and Keirans continued to make false statements to law enforcement in Wisconsin and California. Then in January 2023, Woods found out that Keirans was working at an Iowa hospital.
Woods reported to the University of Iowa Hospital compliance office that
A judge placed the real Woods in a psychiatric facility because he kept saying he wasn’t Keirans.
employee “William David Woods” is not who he says he is. In the report, he tells the hospital that he is the real Woods. That same day, university police opened an investigation.
Police were able to confirm Woods’ story through DNA testing and after an elderly Kentucky man came forward to claim the real Woods as his son. Keirans was taken into custody in Johnson County, Iowa, on July 17, 2023.
Keirans initially insisted that Woods was “crazy” and “needed help and should be locked up” but eventually admitted in his interview with a detective to using Woods’ identity in “every aspect of his life,” prosecutors said.
Keirans said he provided fraudulent documents to authorities in Los Angeles to help in the arrest, prosecution and incarceration of the real Woods. He obtained Woods’ birth certificate from the state of Kentucky using information he found on Ancestry.com.
He also filed an additional report with the Hartland Police Department. Records show that Keirans applied for multiple loans and credit lines using Woods’ identity over the years. He also committed other criminal acts and identified himself as Woods.
Although a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Iowa states Keirans was an administrator at the hospital, a hospital representative told The Gazette in Cedar Rapids he was not a senior leader in the organization.
Keirans worked as a systems architect in the hospital’s IT department from June 28, 2013, to July 20, 2023, when he was terminated for misconduct related to the investigation. In 2023, his salary was $140,501, according to the hospital.
Keirans married his wife, Nancy Zimmer, in 1994 and had a child whose last name is Woods.
His family wrote letters to the court in November. “Matt has been my husband and chief support for our family,” Zimmer said, adding the couple met in Salem,
Oregon, and moved frequently to pursue educational and job opportunities.
“Matt established our home in Wisconsin over fifteen years ago, and after our son’s elementary school was finished for the academic year, we joined him at the townhouse apartment he rented, and we have resided in since our move from Kentucky.”
Keirans also worked at Kohl’s corporate headquarters in Menomonee Falls for about five years, according to Zimmer. She said when he got the job at the Iowa hospital, he initially commuted some of the days before being allowed to work from home. Keirans developed skills in computer science and had a role in development of systems at the Iowa hospital, Zimmer said.
“I thank all those who have taken up my role as Matt’s wife — the nurses, doctors, counselors and cooks — and all those in the judicial system who have so faithfully exercised their duties — officers, clerks, attorneys, and judges — to resolve this matter so that Matt may restart his civil life by lawful means and so that we may resume our happily ever after,” Zimmer said.
His son wrote to the court, “I am ... son of Matthew Keirans, formerly known as William Woods — in either case, known to me as Dad. I am writing this letter to inform the reader as to his relationship with me: he has raised me, parented me, and supported me for as long as I can remember.”
“He gave me my first computer, my interest in STEM, science fiction, and fantasy; he paid for the car I drive and my tuition,” he added. “For as long as I’ve been alive, he has worked hard to provide for my mom and me. We have lived together in Wisconsin for approximately fifteen years, and I hope you find it reasonable for him to return to live with us again.”
Keirans will be sentenced by U.S. District Court Chief Judge C.J. Williams after a pre-sentence report is prepared. He remains in custody of the United States Marshals pending sentencing. He faces a mandatory minimum sentence of two years in prison and a possible maximum sentence of 32 years in prison and a $1.25 million fine.