Teresa Brady is a former president of Duval Teachers United, the district's teachers union.
Published on December 31, 2025 at 12:49 pm
Free local news and info, in your inbox at 6 a.m. M-F. Sign up for the Jacksonville Today newsletter.
The former president of the Duval teachers union has paid the federal government more than $1.3 million after pleading guilty to fraud and money laundering, according to court records.
A document processed by the U.S. Marshal’s Office shows Teresa Brady, 70, transferred $1,328,695.28 into a federal government fund for seized assets in mid-December. The teachers union, Duval Teachers United, may be able to try to recover the money through the Department of Justice’s restitution program.
Jacksonville Today thanks our sponsors. Become one.
Brady and her co-defendant, former DTU vice president Ruby George, 82, were indicted a year ago on federal charges of wire fraud and mail fraud. Brady also faced two counts of money laundering. George pleaded guilty in August, and Brady followed with her own guilty plea two months later.
Court records do not show that George has made a similar deposit yet, though her plea agreement has similar terms as Brady’s with regard to forfeiture.
Their sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 9. Court documents show Brady faces a maximum prison sentence of 70 years, while George’s upper limit is 60 years. They both also face six-figure fines.
Jacksonville Today thanks our sponsors. Become one.
Once a teacher at what was then John Love Elementary in Springfield, Brady chaired the Florida Democratic Party for several years during the Clinton administration before becoming DTU president in 1999.
Fraud at the union
The FBI and the IRS raided DTU’s San Marco headquarters in September 2023 and were seen taking computer equipment and boxes of evidence from the building.
The federal indictment, which was unsealed in January 2025, said the government intended to seize a combined total of more than $2.5 million, which it alleged Brady and George obtained through a scheme that involved cashing in unearned leave time.
Working together to sign each other’s checks, the two union officers were able to conceal their actions for a decade, according to both plea agreements.
They also lied to an auditor, misrepresented their leave balances and incomes to the organization’s board of directors and falsified reports sent to a state oversight body. DTU sometimes went for months or even years at a time without filing proper paperwork with the state.
According to Brady’s plea agreement, her portion of that total was $1.3 million. Government investigators were not able to track and recover the money. They said in the indictment that Brady used some of it to pay personal credit card debt.
“As a result of the acts and omissions of the defendant, the proceeds have been transferred to third parties and cannot be located by the United States upon the exercise of due diligence,” the plea agreement reads.
Local criminal defense attorney Mitch Stone, who is not connected to the case, says defendants in financial crimes cases will sometimes “consent to the forfeiture” and find a way to pay back money stolen.
“That’s the smart thing to do, and a good criminal defense lawyer would know that that’s a good idea,” Stone tells Jacksonville Today.
Stone says this sometimes means cashing in a retirement account or selling valuable possessions — anything to come up with the money and demonstrate to the court the defendant’s “acceptance of responsibility.”
“It shows you’re trying … to make it better by doing what you can to try to make it right,” Stone says.
It doesn’t automatically guarantee a lighter sentence, he says, but judges do consider whether defendants show “contrition.”
As for where Brady was able to find such a large sum of cash, her lawyer, Hank Coxe, declined to comment.
“It’s none of your business,” Coxe says. “It’s confidential.”
