Dalié Jiménez
@dalie.bsky.social
7.2K followers 1.6K following 537 posts
🇨🇺🇺🇸 Lawprof at UCI Law All things debt & credit with social science methods: consumer law, bankruptcy, access to justice. Co-Dir @UC-SLLI.bsky.social Co-PI @DebtCollectionLab.bsky.social Cats, bikes, kdramas - she/ella
![Keirans told the police that he “wishe[d] to prosecute” Woods for “using his identity.” The police therefore forwarded the case to the county prosecutor’s office, which charged Woods with felony crimes of identity theft and false impersonation. Throughout the ensuing state court criminal proceedings, Woods insisted that his name was “William Woods” not “Matthew Keirans.” After Woods’s public defender and an evaluating physician expressed concerns about his competency, the state court determined that Woods was not mentally competent to stand trial and ordered that he be placed in a mental hospital and receive psychotropic medication. In March 2021, Woods was convicted of the felony charges. The state court sentenced Woods to time served and ordered that Woods “use only [his] true name, ‘Matthew Keirans.’” In total, Woods spent 428 days in jail and 147 days in a mental hospital. After his release, Woods continued fighting to reclaim his identity. Keirans, meanwhile, continued insisting to law enforcement that he was “William Woods” and that Woods was “Matthew Keirans.” In January 2023, Woods contacted the hospital where Keirans worked, informing its security department that Keirans had stolen his identity. A hospital employee referred Woods’s complaint to the local law enforcement, which assigned an experienced detective to investigate the complaint. Gradually, the detective unraveled Keirans’s deception. Using DNA evidence, the detective proved conclusively that Woods, not Keirans, is the true “William Woods.” In July 2023, the detective confronted Keirans with this evidence.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:24vva42nxim6zbcmnozegoef/bafkreifdf7hwabncxlmwggpj4livnpj3ezz7ctsd45yavifccjjnilrqzq)
