Experts baffled over how teacher with child sex abuse record could pass Chicago Archdiocese background check

Legal experts are perplexed over how a substitute teacher convicted of abusing children passed a background check and worked as a substitute teacher for the Archdiocese of Chicago for over a year.

And no one has an answer why.

Brett J. Smith passed background and fingerprint checks despite allegations, charges and convictions going back over 20 years across several states. Searches on the Illinois State Police's publicly accessible sex offender registry didn't produce results for his name or his aliases. The archdiocese has not responded to a detailed list of questions asking about the church's background check process.

But experts told the Sun-Times it's hard to believe a person's lengthy criminal record wouldn't come up in a background check.

"I find that almost impossible," Chicago attorney Mike Leonard said. "Especially with a fingerprint check. There is no possible way you couldn't come up with some sort of record. ... Even a Google search would likely pull something up."

Smith, 43, accused of sexually assaulting children in Cook County, DuPage County, Indiana and Arizona, had worked in at least four South Side and south suburban Catholic schools since 2024 before he was fired last month, Superintendent of Catholic Schools Greg Richmond wrote in a letter to parents.

Smith, a Tinley Park resident, was fired after the archdiocese learned about his criminal record. He was also charged last week in Orland Park with aggravated criminal sexual abuse for allegedly abusing a 9-year-old boy during private tutoring sessions, according to Cook County prosecutors. A judge ordered him detained Friday.

In the letter to parents, Richmond said Smith passed "state background and fingerprint checks at the beginning of his employment in the archdiocese in 2024."

The background check was completed by the Illinois State Police “and third-party companies the archdiocese retains for these purposes," according to a statement the archdiocese gave to the Daily Southtown.

A spokesperson with the Illinois State Police told the Sun-Times the agency completed a criminal history check based on a fingerprint supplied by the archdiocese in 2024. That check would have revealed unsealed convictions and sealed felony convictions. The spokesperson said "ISP is prohibited from sharing" the results.

Last week's charges are only the latest in a long criminal record for Smith. He has been accused of both assaulting children and using several different names to hide his past.

In 2019, he legally changed his name to Brett Smith from Brett Zagorac when he moved to Arizona.

Before then, in October 2015, Smith, then Zagorac, was charged in Cook County with felony criminal sexual assault of a minor and two felony counts of grooming after a Wilmette family learned he was molesting their 9-year-old while he tutored the child, according to Cook County court records. He pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge in 2017.

He successfully petitioned the court to seal that case, according to the court records.

About five months after he was charged in the Wilmette case, Smith, living in Munster, Indiana, was again accused of molesting a child. A Chicago family who hired Smith as a tutor learned that he molested their 7-year-old after they heard he was accused of sexually abusing another student.

His criminal history also includes misdemeanor battery convictions in DuPage County in 2005, Indiana in 2009 and Cook County in 2010 for similar crimes, according to previous Sun-Times reporting.

Seven families in Arizona came forward and accused Smith of abusing their children during private tutoring sessions in 2020, according to 12 News.

Smith was also indicted by an Arizona grand jury in 2021 on several fraud charges. He was accused by the Arizona attorney general's office of misrepresenting his background and credentials to get access to kids as a private tutor, according to reporting from 12 News, an NBC affiliate in Arizona.

The TV station reported that the indictment accuses Smith of misrepresenting and omitting facts from a name change application with the Maricopa County Superior Court between August 2019 and April 2020. The indictment alleges he changed his name to conceal his history of arrests and convictions on misdemeanor charges in Illinois and Indiana.

That case is sealed, according to a search of Maricopa County court records. In 2022, he pleaded guilty to one count of felony forgery and was sentenced to two and a half years of probation, according to 12 News.

The indictment lists several aliases for Smith, including his current and former full name, B.J. Wilhelm, Brett Wilhelm, BJ the Educator, B.J. Wilh, Brett J. White, Brett Zagr, B.J. Zagr, Brett Zagor, B.J. Zagor and Mr. Z.

‘It doesn’t add up’

A background check is a broad term for a variety of ways to look into a person's record, legal experts told the Sun-Times. And depending on the type of search, it can be a thorough dig or a superficial glance into a person's past.

For example, if someone requests a background check through the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, they have two options. A partial background check or a comprehensive criminal background check.

The partial background check includes checking the Illinois Child Abuse and Neglect Tracking System, Illinois Sex Offender Registry and those of any state where the person has lived within the past five years.

The comprehensive check covers several more databases: Illinois State Police Criminal History Check, National Sex Offender Registry, National FBI Criminal Fingerprint Search and the National Crime Information Center/National Sex Offender Registry. That check also includes a search through registries and databases in the states where the person has lived in the last five years.

A fingerprint check is one of the most comprehensive searches available. Even if the person changed their name, a fingerprint check accounts for that because their fingerprints are tied to their Social Security number and the various IDs assigned by the courts and corrections departments.

"I do not buy that this guy would have passed a legitimate background check," Leonard, the Chicago attorney, said. "It doesn't add up."

A limited search without a fingerprint check might not pull up a person's full record, especially if they changed their name, Leonard said. But a person with both an extensive criminal history and news stories about them would easily turn up in a simple Google search, he said.

Which is exactly how the parents of the 9-year-old boy in Orland Park learned about Smith's past before reporting him to authorities, according to Orland Park police.

When a Sun-Times reporter searched for Smith under his current name in a public database, his old name quickly came up, along with a list of past criminal charges and convictions in Illinois, Indiana and Arizona. From there, the reporter looked at public court records to confirm his record.

The whole search took less than 10 minutes.

"If the archdiocese used a third party for the background check, perhaps they didn't do it right," Leonard said. "Or perhaps they didn't do it at all."

Citing Smith’s alleged “extensive history of abusing children,” a judge ordered Smith detained last week. The judge said releasing Smith would be “too great of a risk” to the safety of children, according to court records.

Smith is due back in court Feb. 20.