Teresa Brady has admitted her guilt to charges of defrauding Duval Teachers United by making unauthorized payments to herself for unearned leave, bonuses, and reimbursements.
DUVAL COUNTY, Fla. — Teresa Brady, the former president of Duval Teachers United, confessed to multiple charges Thursday in a federal fraud case amounting to $1.2 million.
Brady pleaded guilty to counts one, two, 12 and 13 in the 14-count indictment.
The charges she pleaded to are below:
- Count One: Conspiracy to commit wire fraud and mail fraud
- Count Two: Aiding and abetting wire fraud
- Count Twelve: Aiding and abetting wire fraud
- County Thirteen: Money laundering, specifically engaging in monetary transaction in property derived from specified unlawful activity
Brady risks a maximum sentence of 70 years in prison, a fine of $250,000 or twice the gross gain or financial loss, and twice the laundered funds’ value for each count to which she pleads guilty (whichever amount is higher), plus a supervised release period of up to three years, as stated in the plea agreement.
Per the plea agreement, Brady is also required to forfeit $1,328,695.28 worth of assets she acknowledged obtaining due to her charges; however, the money is currently missing as it has been transferred to third parties. Thus, the U.S. authorities may seize substitute assets instead.
Brady released the following statement regarding her plea:
“I take full responsibility for my actions and their consequences. I sincerely apologize for my misconduct and the damage I caused to Duval Teachers United (DTU) and its members. Recognizing the gravity of my offenses, I accept the verdict with genuine remorse and humility, deeply regretting the breach of trust placed in me by DTU, my community, and my family.”
Brady’s plea follows former Duval Teachers United Executive Vice President Ruby George’s guilty plea to federal fraud charges on Aug. 4.
Brady and George, who co-led the 6,500-member union for 24 years as its highest-ranking officials, were indicted together in December 2024 on charges of reselling large portions of unearned vacation time back to Duval Teachers United.
George pleaded to three of the seven counts that mention her by name, admitting roles in conspiracy, wire fraud and mail fraud, crimes that each carry maximum penalties of 20 years in prison.
A part of George’s plea agreement reciting a “factual basis” for the charges says both George and Brady began selling leave to the union in the 2000s, describing sales of leave balances that would have been nearly impossible to accrue.
The union allotted its employees ― not the teachers, paraprofessionals and others who are DTU members ― 42 days of leave per year that they could use or keep to grow balances of available time off year over year.
George’s plea agreement says she sold more leave than she’d ever earned, giving as one example sales in 2013 of 2,872 hours of leave, the equivalent of 359 days of time off. Her agreement also says George and Brady signed each other’s checks (part of the conspiracy) to authorize the payments into bank accounts (the wire fraud) and didn’t circulate information about their leave balances to the union’s governing board, made up of volunteers who usually met monthly.
The board hired an auditor in 2017 to review union finances, George’s agreement says, but there was an effort to mislead the auditor about leave data and no time was ever allotted for the auditor to report findings to the board.
DTU had to send yearly financial reports with Florida’s Public Employees Relations Commission, but the reports were doctored (the mail fraud) to hide information that could have derailed the leave scam, the report said.
Our news partners, The Florida-Times Union, contributed to this report.
