LOS ANGELES, CA – William Woods, a California man who wrongly spent 428 days in jail and another 147 in a mental hospital—nearly two years—has been proven innocent by DNA evidence after being accused of stealing his own identity, reports The Guardian.
According to The Guardian, 58-year-old Iowa hospital worker Matthew David Keirens is facing up to 32 years in prison for stealing Woods’ identity and living as him for decades.
The two men met in the 1980’s when they briefly worked together, and Keirens had been using Woods’ identity (and accruing hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt as him) ever since, said The Guardian.
The Guardian reports that when Woods found out about that debt and attempted to close the accounts that Kierens had opened in his name, he was arrested and accused of identity theft. Woods, homeless in Los Angeles at the time, tried but was unable to prove his identity.
Keirens was able to use fraudulently acquired documents, including an ID and a birth certificate, to pass himself off as Woods. According to The Guardian, everyone in his life, including his employers and even his wife and children, knew Keirens as William Woods.
Meanwhile, police in California misidentified the real Woods as Matthew Kierens (their misspelling) and deemed him incompetent to stand trial, writes The Guardian. Woods spent more than a year in jail, and for a time was hospitalized and given psychotropic drugs against his will, he said, trying in vain to prove his identity.
The real Keirens, still posing as Woods, called the real Woods “crazy” and asserted he needed to be “locked up,” writes The Guardian, adding police have not disclosed how they found the name Matthew Kierens or why they misidentified Woods this way.
According to The Guardian, Woods was eventually released and was able to contact police at the University of Iowa, where Keirens was working. A police detective managed to track down Woods’ biological father and confirmed, through DNA testing, that Woods was indeed himself. Keirens has since pleaded guilty to federal charges, including one of aggravated identity theft, notes The Guardian, while Woods’ conviction has been vacated.
