A federal jury acquitted a Naples-based financial attorney and chair of the Florida Board of Education after prosecutors charged him with aiding and abetting contractors for illegally obstructing a waterway in connection with construction done near his home in Islamorada.

David Markus and A. Margot Moss, partners at Markus/Moss in Miami, represented Thomas Grady against Thomas Austin Watts-Fitzgerald of the U.S. Attorney's Office before U.S. District Judge Jose E. Martinez.