A former University of Iowa Hospital employee pleaded guilty Monday to federal charges that he had been living under another man’s identity since 1988, causing the other man to be falsely imprisoned for identity theft and sent to a mental hospital.
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.
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 identity theft investigation.
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 said he was not a senior leader in the organization.
Keirans worked at the hospital under the name William Donald Woods, an alias he had been using since about 1988, when he worked with the real William Woods at a hot dog cart in Albuquerque, N.M.
Use of Woods’ identity
Keirans used Woods’ identity “in every aspect of his life,” including obtaining employment, insurance and official documents, and even paying taxes under the name, according to a plea agreement signed by Keirans.
In 1990, Keirans obtained a fraudulent Colorado identification card with Woods’ name and birthday. He used the ID to get a job at a fast-food restaurant and to get a Colorado bank account. He bought a car for $600 in 1991, using Wood’s name, with two $300 checks that bounced.
He drove the stolen car to Idaho, where it broke down and he abandoned it. He withdrew all his money from the Colorado bank using an ATM in Idaho and left the state. An arrest warrant was issued for Woods in Colorado because of the stolen car, though documents don’t indicate whether Woods was arrested at that time.
It wasn’t the first time Keirans had stolen a car. When he was 16, he stole a car after running away from his adoptive parents’ home in San Francisco. He was arrested at the time in Oregon, under his own name, but never appeared in court, according to court documents.
In 1994 — six years after he started using Woods’ name — Keirans got married. He had a child, whose last name is Woods.
In 2012 — 24 years after he started using Woods’ name — Keirans fraudulently acquired a copy of Woods’ birth certificate from the state of Kentucky using information he found about Woods’ family on Ancestry.com.
By 2013, Keirans had moved to eastern Wisconsin. He started his IT job with UI Hospitals and worked remotely. He earned more than $700,000 in his 10 years working for the hospital. In 2023, his salary was $140,501, according to the hospital.
Keirans obtained multiple vehicle and personal loans from Iowa credit unions under Woods’ name between 2016 and 2022, totaling more than $200,000. He also had money stored in a national bank under Woods’ name, court documents state.
Woods’ arrest
In 2019, the real William Woods was homeless, living in Los Angeles. He went to a branch of the national bank and explained that he recently discovered someone was using his credit and had accumulated a lot of debt.
Woods didn’t want to pay the debt and asked to know the account numbers for any accounts he had open at the bank so he could close them.
Woods gave the bank employee his real Social Security card and an authentic California Identification card, which matched the information the bank had on file. Because there was a large amount of money in the accounts, the bank employee asked Woods a series of security questions that he was unable to answer.
The bank employee called Keirans, whose the phone number was connected to the accounts. He answered the security questions correctly and said no one in California should have access to the accounts.
The employee called the Los Angeles Police Department, and officers spoke with Woods and Keirans. Keirans faxed the Los Angeles officers a copy of Woods’ Social Security card and birth certificate, as well as a Wisconsin driver’s license Keirans had acquired under Woods’ name.
The driver’s license had the name William David Woods — David is Keirans’ real middle name — rather than William Donald Woods. When questioned, Keiran told an LAPD officer he sometimes used David as a middle name, but his real name was William Donald Woods.
The real Woods was arrested and charged with identity theft and false impersonation, under a misspelling of Keirans’ name: Matthew Kierans.
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.
In March 2021, Woods pleaded no contest to the identity theft charges — meaning he accepted the conviction but did not admit guilt. He was sentenced to two years imprisonment with credit for the two years he already served in the county jail and the hospital and was released. He was also ordered to pay $400 in fines and to stop using the name William Woods.
He did not stop. Woods continued to attempt to regain his identity by filing customer disputes with financial organizations in an attempt to clear his credit report. He also reached out to multiple law enforcement agencies, including the Hartland Police Department in Wisconsin, where Keirans lived.
UI investigation
Woods eventually discovered where Keirans was working, and in January 2023 he reached out to the University of Iowa Hospitals’ security department, who referred his complaint to the University of Iowa Police Department.
University of Iowa Police Detective Ian Mallory opened an investigation into the case. Mallory found the biological father listed on Woods’ birth certificate — which both Woods and Keirans had sent him an official copy of — and tested the father’s DNA against Woods’ DNA. The test proved Woods was the man’s son.
On July 17, 2023, Mallory interviewed Keirans. He asked Keirans what his father’s name was, and Keirans accidentally gave the name of his own adoptive father. Mallory then confronted Keirans with the DNA evidence, and Keirans responded by saying, “my life is over” and “everything is gone.” He then confessed to the prolonged identity theft, according to court documents.
Charges
Keirans was taken into custody July 18, 2023, and charged in Johnson County with false use of birth certificate and providing false identification information.
He pleaded guilty Aug. 14 to false use of birth certificate and the other charge was dropped. He was sentenced to 20 days in Johnson County Jail, with credit for time served.
On Aug. 29, a complaint was filed in federal court against Keirans. 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. He pleaded guilty Monday to one count of each charge, and the other counts were dropped.
A sentencing has not yet been scheduled. Keirans is currently in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service, according to a news release about his plea.
Comments: (319) 398-8328; emily.andersen@thegazette.com
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