Anthony Zaksewicz, the Matanzas High School teacher arrested in early December on charges resulting from a long-running shoplifting scheme at Walmart, has been reinstated at Matanzas High School following a plea deal and pre-trial intervention program that, if abided by, may lead to the dropping of all charges in a year. Zaksewicz pleaded before Circuit Judge Terence Perkins on Wednesday.
Zaksewicz over half a year had used different methods to steal merchandise from Walmart, totaling over $3,000. The Flagler County Sheriff’s Office initially charged him with three third-degree felony charges and 10 misdemeanors. When the State Attorney’s Office filed its charging information, it dropped all charges, replacing them with one count of grand theft, a third-degree felony.
Zaksewicz turned himself in at the county jail, was booked and released on $5,000 bond, and was placed on leave from his job teaching social studies at Matanzas. Days leater, with his attorney, Kurt Teifke, he agreed to a plea–he pleaded no contest to the grand theft charge–and to what is commonly referred to as a PTI.
Pre-trial intervention defers for a year prosecution on a felony charge–usually a first-time felony charge. It is similar to probation, with numerous restrictions and requirements. For example, Zaksewicz will be required to pay all court and investigative costs plus monthly costs of supervision. He will be required to get a mental health evaluation and follow its recommendations, if any. He will have to complete an anti-theft course. He will be forbidden from frequenting bars or any place that exclusively serves alcohol. He will be required to submit to random urinalyses. He will have to complete 50 hours of community service. He will need permission from his probation officer any time he seeks to leave the county.
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He will also have to repay Walmart $3,178.61. The terms have not been specified, according to the current order filed with the court.
If he complies with all the provisions of his PTI, he may petition the court to have those restrictions ended at the six-month mark. On the other hand, if he violates the term of the contract within those 12 months, the prosecution of the initial felony charge resumes, with no credit provided for the probationary term. A third-degree felony charge carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison, though first-0time offenders typically do not serve prison, but are placed on probation, and adjudication is withheld, sparing them the stigma of being branded a felon.
The difference with a PTI is that the forgiveness goes one crucial step further: 12 months from now, if Zaksewicz has abided by all the PTI’s conditions, the state will be required to drop the charge, essentially scrubbing Zaksewicz’s record in most ways. Meanwhile, the case is removed from the court’s active docket.
The case was investigated by Flagler County Sheriff’s detective Joe Costello and prosecuted by Assistant State Attorney Tara Libby. Teifke is the defense attorney in another Matanzas case that has drawn attention: that of Brendan Depa, the former student who assaulted a paraprofessional there last February, and who faces a sentencing hearing at the end of January in an open plea on a first degree felony charge.
