Second executive pleads guilty in scheme to bilk Florida domestic violence group
Patricia Duarte, the chief financial officer for a domestic violence coalition whose executives bilked the state out of millions of dollars, pleaded guilty to a first-degree felony for organized fraud on Monday in a deal that likely ensures one of Florida’s biggest political scandals of the decade will end without anyone going to prison.
Duarte, accused of pocketing $291,000 in excessive compensation that should have gone to help victims seeking relief through the Florida Coalition Against Domestic Violence, will serve eight years of probation, pay $6,623 and work 350 hours of community service. But she won’t have to return to jail, with the two days she spent behind bars following her 2023 arrest treated as time served.
Duarte’s accomplice, CEO Tiffany Carr, accepted a plea deal related to the case in January that spared her any jail time for the millions of dollars she took in illegal compensation. The state delayed Carr’s sentencing, intending to use her as a cooperative witness in a trial against Duarte that will no longer take place.
Neither Duarte, her attorney, nor the state’s attorney who prosecuted the case would answer questions at the Leon County courthouse on Monday.
Together, Carr and Duarte ran the Florida Coalition Against Domestic Violence, which acted as a pass-through for federal grants to 42 shelters across Florida. They were arrested in 2023 and accused by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement of padding their pay by creating false positions on the books, crediting the empty positions with high salaries, filing false quarterly reports and receiving thousands of dollars in overpayments from the Florida Department of Children and Families.
Duarte and Carr would then obtain the funds by receiving large amounts of paid time off in conjunction with their annual performance reviews, as well as annual raises and bonuses, according to a criminal affidavit.
The investigations were announced after a series of stories by the Miami Herald and the Herald/Times Tallahassee Bureau over 18 months revealed how Carr used her tight control of the coalition to inflate her compensation, all while domestic-violence victims across the state were denied services.
As the nation’s largest domestic-violence coalition, the FCADV served as the sole clearinghouse for about $52 million annually in state and federal funds that flowed to Florida agencies that provided shelter, support and care for victims of domestic violence.
The state canceled the contract in 2020 following a House investigation and clawed back $5 million in 2021 under former Attorney General Ashley Moody. Duarte and the coalition’s former chief operating officer, Sandra Barnett, were ordered to pay $60,000 in a settlement agreement reached with the state in 2021. As part of that settlement, Carr was ordered to pay $2.1 million.
Both Carr and Duarte have now pleaded guilty to organized fraud. Carr also pleaded guilty to official misconduct and will likely receive 10 years of probation and pay the state more than $260,000. It is unclear when she will be sentenced.
“Duarte, do you understand that giving this plea today, if you’re ever charged in the future with a fraud or theft-based offense, this could be used to charge you with a higher degree of crime, or that you would face a worse penalty?” Judge Stephen Everett asked during the sentencing.
Duarte said she understood. She said she accepted that she would not have a trial as a result.
In January, Everett noted that domestic violence advocates had sent letters opposing the plea deal for Carr, who organized the fraud scheme for years, including a $761,000 salary in 2018 and a $7.5 million compensation package that included nearly nearly $5 million in paid time off.
Statewide Prosecutor Guillermo L. Vallejo told the judge on Monday that his “office has not been contacted by any outside groups” regarding Duarte’s plea deal.