The previous scorching canine vendor who was falsely imprisoned when he grew to become the sufferer of a three-decade-long id theft case has spoken out and threatened to sue town that locked him up.
William Woods spent 428 days in jail and 147 days inside a hospital after he was dominated unfit for trial as a result of a choose thought his notion of his id was twisted.
“They need to pay for day by day I needed to keep there,” Woods informed the Los Angeles Instances. “It isn’t proper to be placing me in jail for nothing.”
Woods had labored at a scorching canine cart in Albuquerque, New Mexico for years when Matthew Keirans was employed in 1988.
The 2 reportedly received right into a bodily altercation after Keirans stole Woods’ pockets.
“I put my fist in his face, and he determined at hand me again my pockets,” Woods informed the outlet, however he didn’t hit Keirans.
Woods, now 55, wasn’t too involved with the office theft after he confirmed every part was contained in the billfold together with his Social Safety card and start certificates.
“I didn’t assume something of it,” Woods stated. “I didn’t assume he was really going to do something.”
Keirans, nonetheless, spent the following 40 years dwelling as William David Woods, racked up a whole lot of 1000’s of {dollars} in debt and purchased a automobile beneath his unsuspecting sufferer’s identify.
Keirans had his new, stolen identify to assist him with no matter he needed together with a brand new life in Colorado that ultimately introduced him to getting married in 1994 and having a child, all whereas getting a job beneath Woods’ identify on the College of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, incomes at the least $700,000.
After he completed working on the scorching canine stand, Woods recalled bouncing all around the nation choosing up odd jobs, corresponding to a day laborer in El Paso, working at a laundromat in Las Vegas and earlier than he landed in in Southern California.
Woods began out dwelling in San Diego working a tech job, earlier than he moved to Santa Monica in 2009, staying at space lodges and motels whereas promoting gems, gold scraps and different jewels discovered on the streets, he informed the newspaper.
Ten years later, Woods found somebody had been utilizing his credit score and gathered a considerable amount of debt beneath his identify.
The fraud sufferer had requested the accounts be closed, however couldn’t reply any of the safety questions arrange for William Woods’ accounts.
The skeptical financial institution worker ultimately referred to as the quantity linked to the accounts, and Keirans picked up, answering all the safety questions accurately and informing the financial institution that nobody in California ought to have entry to the accounts.
Keirans additionally faxed over a duplicate of a Social Safety Card, a Wisconsin Drivers License and a Kentucky Beginning Certificates he created with info from Ancestry.com
The LAPD dominated Keirans’ paperwork had been respectable and arrested Woods for unauthorized use of private info.
Woods was handed two felony prices from the District Lawyer’s workplace beneath the identify “Matthew Kierans” the wrong spelling for the precise id thief.
“Individuals didn’t pay attention, and so they didn’t know I used to be who I stated I used to be,” Woods stated. “They had been portray it like I used to be loopy.”
“At first I saved saying, ‘I’m not responsible,’ however they wouldn’t imagine that,” Woods stated. “They wouldn’t imagine it.”
He was convicted of felony prices in 2021, the place he pleaded no contest and was launched.
Upon his launch from jail, Woods efficiently reached out to the College of Iowa Police Division in 2023, the place he received a detective to speak with Keirans.
When confronted by a detective, who had already carried out a constructive DNA end result between Woods and his father, Keirans initially lied and referred to as Woods “loopy” and “wanted assist and must be locked up.”
Keirans was then informed concerning the true DNA check, and he knew his scheme was over.
“My life is over,” and “every part is gone,” Keirans reportedly stated, in line with the LA Instances.
Woods was described as “essentially the most harmless sort fellow you’ll ever wish to meet,” by Eric Kilmer, the person who employed him to work the recent canine stand within the 1980’s.
Throughout his interview with the newspaper, Woods reportedly rambled on, giving unbacked theories that the police had been in on the id fraud scheme, they needed him in jail or they conspired with the banker to “put me in jail on goal.”
Woods additionally reportedly spewed out random names all through the interview.
Kilmer believes his former worker has been traumatized by the quantity of people that took benefit of him, as Woods
“I feel that since individuals had been making the most of him over time, all these names stick in his head,” Kilmer informed The Instances. “He’s simply making an attempt to tie all of it collectively in his personal thoughts, I feel.”
Woods is now again in Albuquerque dwelling in a good friend’s van, on the lookout for a brighter future.
“What’s subsequent for me?” he requested. “I assume I’ve to regain all my stuff again and simply rebuild what I used to be.”
A movement to vacate Woods’ conviction has been filed, and a listening to is about for Thursday.
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