Anthony Zaksewicz, a 45-year-old resident of Lema Lane in Palm Coast and a veteran history teacher at Matanzas High School honored last year with a state award, was arrested on felony charges in connection with an alleged thieving scheme at Walmart that stretched over six months and aggregated thefts of nearly $3,200. Zaksewicz has taught in Flagler schools for 17 years.
According to his arrest report, Walmart reported the alleged thefts to the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office in mid-October, by which time the store’s asset protection investigator had concluded that Zaksewicz had chronically used ticket-switching and skip-scanning methods in innumerable transactions involving hundreds of items from May 13 through Oct. 1.
The transactions were conducted at self-checkout scanning machines. Ticket-switching is the use of an inexpensive item’s bar code to undercharge merchandise being scanned. Sip-scanning is the act of appearing to scan an item when the item’s barcode is intentionally kept from registering. The sheriff’s deputy initially working the case found it to be too extensive for him to complete while still working road patrol, so he turned it over to Sheriff’s detective Joe Costello, who documented the progression of the alleged thefts.
Almost all the instances took place in summer or on weekends, once school resumed on Aug. 10. “As is evidenced in Walmart video, [Zaksewicz] uses a bar code of a very inexpensive item cups in his hand and uses it to scan much more expensive items to commit this theft as well as other methods, skip scanning and missed weight reads on produce items,” Costello reported. The store’s investigator, Jacqulyn Medina, “was extremely thorough during her investigation of these thefts, providing all documentation and video evidence to show this on-going and systematic course of action could not be conceived as a mistake, but quite purposeful to commit theft.”
Costello informed Zaksewicz of the investigation and pending charges on Oct. 16. “Zaksewicz inquired if he could contact Walmart and arrange to make financial restitution to them in lieu of prosecution,” Costello reported. “I informed Zaksewicz I could not get involved in any civil litigation and was there to serve him with a trespass warning.” Soon afterward, Zaksewicz contacted Walmart to say he’d made a mistake, and asked if he could make restitutions, “to which Medina responded that Walmart desires to prosecute for all crimes committed.”
Circuit Judge Terence Perkins signed a warrant for Zaksewicz’s arrest on Tuesday, the same day Zaksewicz turned himself in at the county jail, where he was booked. He posted bail on $5,000 and was released hours later.
Zaksewicz on his arrest report was listed as facing four third-degree felonies, three of them for aggregate thefts exceeding $750 each, and an additional third degree felony charge of unlawfully possessing or using an inventory control device. His jail booking, however, lists one third-degree felony charge of grand theft.
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A third degree felony is punishable by up to five years in prison. Assuming a plea is tendered, a first-time offender typically will face probation rather than jail or prison time, especially with restitution in play, and adjudication may be withheld, in essence sparing the defendant from being branded a felon. Avoiding adjudication in this case would be key, since teachers are disqualified from holding a job with a school district once they are adjudicated guilty of certain felonies, among them theft exceeding $3,000.
Teachers with misdemeanors are allowed to keep working. The district had not responded to a request for information on Zaksewicz’s current status before this article initially published.
Last October Zaksewicz received the 2022 Florida Council Social Studies Harry T. Moore Teaching for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Award, a statewide honor intended to “recognize and celebrate a Florida teacher who encourages an appreciation and respect for civil rights and civil liberties.” (The award is named for Harry and Harriette Moore, who had founded the NAACP chapter in Brevard County and where they were both teachers. They were murdered by the KKK, which bombed their home in 1951, on their 25th anniversary.)
The Flagler County School Board recognized Zaksewicz after he received the award last year. “He has spent countless hours in his classroom impacting the lives of students, stretching their thinking and empowering them to become active citizens who will positively impact the world,” a colleague said of him, while another wrote: “He gives a voice and makes room for all underrepresented groups in our collective history. He allows students to explore the expansion of civil rights and civil liberties over time, while encouraging students to explore parts of history that speak to them.”
In 2020 he and his family were at the center of a pre-season tribute by school softball teams as Zaksewicz’s eldest son was undergoing treatment for leukemia, on whose behalf a fundraiser had been organized.
