JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Federal prosecutors have indicted former Jacksonville teachers union leaders Terrie Brady and Ruby George on fraud and conspiracy charges that involved bilking the union for more than $2.4 million for non-existent vacation time.

The women, who respectively were president and executive vice president of Duval Teachers United for 24 years, could face the potential of decades of prison time if they’re ultimately convicted.

The indictment, which was issued last month under seal and unsealed Monday, may answer questions that had lingered since agents from the FBI and Internal Revenue Service carried computers, credit card statements and boxes and bags of other material from the union headquarters in San Marco in September 2023. Brady and George retired weeks later.

The Times-Union reported at the time that investigators were thought to be probing potential misappropriation of funds. Authorities declined comment then because the subject was an open investigation.

The 14-count indictment claimed Brady, 69, and George, 80, had ripped off the union from 2013 to 2022 by falsifying records of the leave balance they accrued and sold back as unused vacation. Each woman claimed more than $1.2 million in phony leave time over the course of those years, the indictment said.

The indictment also charged Brady individually with making financial transactions derived from illegal activity, pressing two charges that involved covering about $44,000 in personal American Express bills.

For Brady, the indictment is a dramatic reversal in a career shaped by decades of achievement.

The Jacksonville native began teaching in Duval County schools in 1979 and rose to prominence in both the teachers union and the Democratic Party, where she had volunteered for campaign work since her youth.

She became DTU’s president in 1999 and in 2022 received a lifetime achievement award from the Florida Education Association for “a long record of excellent leadership and a deep commitment to the 13,000 employees her union represents.”

DTU bargains contracts for a work force of teachers, paraprofessionals and office employees, although not all are dues-paying union members.

The count of DTU “voting members” was listed at 5,771 in this year’s American Federation of Teachers national convention delegate roll, a substantial drop from the 7,541 reported in 2022. DTU is affiliated with both the AFT and the National Education Association.

Brady’s annual compensation from DTU was reported as $251,868 in a 2022 tax filing the union submitted last year, making her pay more than 20% greater than her counterpart in the union for the 27,000-employee Miami-Dade County school district.

Brady’s earnings apparently fluctuated, dropping to $197,109 in 2021. That level of variation has been described as unusual in news reporting dealing with teachers unions, although tax filings for the United Teachers of Dade show reported compensation for that group’s president dipped from about $204,000 in 2022 to about $177,000 last year.

Compensation for George, who was DTU’s executive vice president for at least 20 years and once chaired the board of one of Jacksonville’s early charter schools, totaled about $134,000 in 2019, $162,000 in 2021 and $245,000 in 2022, according to union tax filings.

The indictment’s timing at the end of an intense presidential election race was a bitter irony for Brady, who in addition to organizing for DTU helped shape Democratic politics in Florida for decades.

She had become chair of the Democrats’ state party by 1995, leading in a time when education union members nationally comprised about one in eight delegates to Democrats’ presidential nominating convention. Brady resigned the top party role in 1998 but remaining a powerful political voice through the 2010s, repeatedly holding seats on the Democratic National Committee and as a presidential elector.

This story was published by our news partners at the Florida Times-Union.