Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, October 18, 1994 TAG: 9410180112
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MICHAEL STOWE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Instead, U.S. District Judge James Turk sentenced Julien Dilks, 35, to 10 days in jail and four years of supervised release after he gets out. Turk also ordered Dilks to repay the $22,508.30 he swindled from two banks and fined him $2,500.
Turk admitted that he came into court intending to impose a 14-month sentence, but changed his mind after Dilks accepted responsibility for his crime and said it wouldn't happen again.
"I have sat in church for hours just wondering what I can do," he told the judge. "I'm sorry it happened ... but there's nothing I can do except pay the money back."
Dilks, now 35, was a high school sophomore in 1976 when a pole-vaulting accident left him in a coma for 13 days. He made a "miraculous" recovery from the accident and went on to earn a master's degree in physics.
In 1987, Dilks founded the JMA Head Injury Foundation in Washington, D.C., which has a mission statement to help head injury victims "by working to modify the current trial-and-error method approach to rehabilitation."
In 1992, however, Dilks devised a bank fraud scheme to help finance the group, Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom Eckert said.
Eckert said Dilks had numerous checking accounts in banks from Charlottesville to Washington. He would increase the balance of an account at Jefferson National Bank in Charlottesville by writing checks on other empty accounts in his name.
He would then withdraw money from Jefferson National before the checks could bounce.
"He was stealing with a fountain pen," Eckert said.
Eckert said Dilks stole just over $12,100 from Jefferson National and about $10,400 from First America Bank - now First Union National Bank - in Northern Virginia.
Turk convicted Dilks on the one-count fraud indictment in July. The case was heard in Roanoke's federal court.
Monday, the judge at first seemed adamant that Dilks would spend at least a year in prison. But that changed after Dilks told the judge that he wouldn't be able to pay back the money if he was in prison.
"I'm very good at what I do; I'm regarded as a national leader when it comes to brain injuries," he said. "I do well at trying to help people who have suffered injuries similar to mine. ... I'm just not a financial wizard."
by CNB