Julien Modica

Julien Modica (born 1959) is former CEO of the Brain Trauma Recovery & Policy Institute and political candidate.
Personal background
Modica is a resident of Fairfax County, Virginia. He graduated from The American University in 1987 with a degree in Physics and was awarded a Master of Public Health from the Eastern Virginia Medical School in 2003 and was awarded a Master of Public Policy from George Mason University in 2005.
Until Modica’s February 1976 pole-vaulting related severe brain injury, he was a varsity quarterback and top ranked Virginia pole vaulter at Herndon High School in Fairfax County. "Taking part in a variety of sports was a dominant force in Modica's high school life." His greatest passion, however, was to attend the United States Naval Academy and serve his newly adopted country as a U.S. Naval Officer. Modica worked daily for three and a half years to qualify for his United States Naval Academy admission in 1979.
Modica’s recovery from severe brain injury (GCS<4) is the first real life example of what will be achieved by a growing list of thousands and thousands of brave Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans who have been diagnosed with brain injury and have begun the long path of physical/cognitive/emotional neurological recovery. Modica is divorced and has two teenage children. Modica was a Democratic primary candidate running against Mark Warner in 2008 for the U.S. Senate representing the Commonwealth of Virginia on a platform of securing more federal funding for veterans who return from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with brain injuries.
He was one of three Democratic primary candidates running against Frank Wolf in 2010 for the U.S. House of Representatives seat representing Virginia's 10th congressional district. In 2007, Julien Modica wrote the White Paper describing how the "Veterans Traumatic Brain Injury Rehabilitation Act of 2007", the "Wounded Warrior Assistance Act of 2007," the "Traumatic Brain Injury Access to Options Act" and the "Traumatic Brain Injury Act of 1996," if passed into law, could help Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans with brain injury live meaningful lives or whether the U.S. Congress needed, in fact, to think more long-term.
Legal Controversy
On October 17th, 1994 an information was filed, which charged Modica with violating 18 U.S.C.A. § 1344 (Bank fraud) and said information contained one count. On September 27th, 2010, Modica filed his last of four extraordinary Writs of Error Coram nobis (Coram nobis has been discussed as a vehicle to bring certain matters to the attention of the court which, if known at trial, would have prevented the rendition of the verdict). (Sanction for the use of Coram nobis can be found in the all-writs section of the Judicial Code (28 USCA § 1651(a)) United States v. Morgan, 346 US 502, 511 (1954) pp 506-507) in order to vacate its decision in United States of America v. Julien K. Dilks (aka: Julien Modica). Alternatively, the petition asked the District Court to exercise its inherent equitable power to set aside its 1994 ruling. The petition was denied. After sixteen years of part-time legal work, Modica put his case, in the form of a Writ of Error Coram nobis back before the Honorable James Clinton Turk four times.
Nothing Modica was found guilty at trial matched, in anyway, the severity of actions by 60% of congressional members in the U.S. House of Representatives during the House banking scandal. In 1992 House Minority Whip, Republican Newt Gingrich, kited 22 checks, which almost cost him reelection. “The worst offender among sitting members of the U.S. House was Robert Mrazek (D-NY) who overdrew his House account 920 times” and kited untold numbers of checks. Mrazek served on the House Appropriations Committee from 1983 (as a freshman member of Congress) to 1993 when he retired. Mrazek never faced charges for his criminal activities. In the March 13, 1992 Los Angeles Times article, “Dannemeyer, Boxer Admit Kiting Checks” states, “o far, at least 10 California House members have admitted kiting checks, including Rep. Duncan L. Hunter (R-Coronado), who said that in the last three years his account lacked funds to cover at least 160 checks. Hunter is unrepentant, insisting that, in effect, he had paid for overdraft protection at the House bank by putting $147 per month from his paycheck into a scholarship fund for needy students.” Hunter said, “he averaged three to five overdrafts a month at the House bank and had a similar overdraft rate for his personal account at the Bank of Coronado.” Rep. Mary Rose Oaker (D-OH) was indicated for seven felonies related to the House banking scandal, including conspiracy and filing false statements, but ultimately the charges were dropped to a single misdemeanor. Modica was charged with kiting 5 checks, but did not benefit personally from any of the financial transactions. The inequities associated with Modica's conviction are abundant, frustrating and unfair, but after nearly 20 years, very little can be done. However, the court's 1994 decision does not, in anyway, prevent Modica from participating in and getting elected to the United States Senate.

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