A former teacher and tutor was arrested Wednesday following an investigation into allegations of sexual abuse involving a juvenile and the advertising of private tutoring services, Orland Park police said Thursday evening.
The man, identified as Brett Smith, 43, had been fired recently after working for more than a year as a Chicago Catholic Schools teacher. He most recently had been working as a substitute teacher at Queen of Martyrs School in Evergreen Park, according to the archdiocese.
According to Evergreen Park police, officers were dispatched to Queen of Martyrs on Jan. 21 to meet with concerned parents. A police report was filed and police are investigating a possible incident involving their child while at school.
Smith turned himself in at the Orland Park Police Department after detectives attempted to locate him at his residence. He will appear at the Bridgeview Courthouse on Friday for a preliminary hearing.
Orland Park police began their investigation after parents hired a tutor who identified himself as “BJ S. McAuliffe” to provide tutoring services for their juvenile child. The parents later became concerned when the name associated with a requested bank payment appeared as Brett Smith.
The parents conducted an online search of Brett Smith, also known as Brett Zagorac, and located publicly available news articles and videos from other states referencing prior allegations involving children going back decades. The parents then contacted the Orland Park Police Department, prompting a criminal investigation.
During the investigation, detectives determined that Brett Zagorac legally changed his name to Brett Smith and utilized several aliases, including BJ S., BJ Smith, and BJ S. McAuliffe, when advertising tutoring services. Following an extensive investigation, detectives established probable cause that Smith engaged in sexual contact with a juvenile.
Detectives worked in coordination with the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office Crimes Against Persons Unit, and Smith was charged with Aggravated Criminal Sexual Abuse – Class 1 Felony.
The Orland Park Police Department is requesting that anyone who believes they, their child, or a child under their care may have been a victim of Brett Smith contact the law enforcement agency where the incident occurred.
According to Block Club Chicago, Smith cleared a background check with the Catholic schools system, officials there acknowledged.
The site said the archdiocese said he also worked as a long-term substitute teacher at St. Walter-St. Benedict School in Morgan Park and Blue Island during the 2024-25 school year, as an employee of a third-party vendor assigned to Pope John Paul II School in Brighton Park at the beginning of the 2025-26 school year.
In a letter to school families, the archdiocese said it was “deeply concerned” about the teacher’s presence in their schools and with students and was investigating how a pre-employment background check failed to flag his criminal history.
“Upon learning these allegations, we took immediate action to bar him from our schools and he has been terminated,” the archdiocese said.
Abuse allegations have followed Smith for more than two decades and have been reported in at least three states – Illinois, Indiana and Arizona.