ORLAND PARK (IL)
Patch [Oak Lawn, IL]
July 29, 2026
By Lorraine Swanson
Former substitute teacher Brett Smith, 43, receives a sentence of two years of probation in exchange for his guilty plea to a lesser charge.
A substitute teacher and tutor with a decades-long trail of child sex abuse allegations pleaded guilty earlier this month to aggravated battery of a 9-year-old Orland Park boy.
Brett Smith, 43, of Tinley Park, pleaded guilty on July 16. Smith is alleged to have repeatedly touched the 9-year-old during a tutoring session at the boy’s home. The boy’s mother became suspicious when she tried to pay him via Zelle. The name “Brett Smith” came up, which was different from the name prosecutors said he gave them.
Disturbed about the false name, the boy’s parents began researching “Brett Smith,” finding numerous news stories where he had been accused of sexual abuse and fraud, with cases from Illinois, Indiana and Arizona showing up under the names “Brad Zagorac” and “Brad Smith.”
Orland Park police arrested Smith on Jan. 29. The Cook County State’s Attorney approved a felony charge of aggravated criminal sexual abuse.
Parents at Queen of Martyrs Elementary School in Evergreen Parkwere also made aware of the many child sex abuse allegations leveled against Smith and brought their concerns to Evergreen Park police. Police said they took a report from one family of a possible incident involving their child while the teacher was employed at Queen of Martyrs and opened an investigation. Smith was subsequently charged with misdemeanor battery.
The disgraced substitute is believed to have worked at four South Side and south suburban Catholic schools over a 16-month period. At neighboring St. Walter-St. Benedict in Blue Island, Smith was a long-term substitute during the 2024-2025 school year.
Smith was an employee of a third-party vendor assigned to Pope John Paul II School and a tutor for at least one family whose child attended a south suburban Catholic school.
In an email to Patch when the past allegations were made public, the Archdiocese of Chicago stated that Smith somehow averted the archdiocese’s fingerprint and background checks for new school employees. Smith was quickly fired by the Queen of Hearts. Dogged by financial deficits and the sex abuse scandal, the Catholic elementary school, which straddles the border of Evergreen Park and Mount Greenwood, announced it would not reopen this fall.
Smith is believed to have legally changed his name from “Brett Zagorac” to “Brett Smith” in Arizona in 2019. Under the name Zagorac, he was able to get many of the felony child sex abuse charges knocked down to misdemeanor battery charges.
As part of the plea deal, the original felony charge of aggravated criminal sexual abuse was dropped. Smith was sentenced to two years of probation and must register as a violent offender against youth.
Judge Stephen Rosenblum, in part, saidthe lesser charge was due in part to not wanting to re-traumatize the child by making him testify. He also gave Smith a stern warning that while under his probation, he was not to teach, coach, tutor, or do anything involving children while under the judge’s probation, the Chicago Tribune reported.
“Each time when that has occurred, either the penalties were not stiff enough or he did not get the understanding that these types of actions cannot continue,” the judge said. “So I’m putting an end to them now.”
A civil lawsuit was also filed last February in Cook County Circuit Court by a plaintiff identified as “Jane Doe” against Ortiz, Smith and the Archdiocese of Chicago. The mother alleges Smith was grooming her second-grade son and inappropriately touched him. Also named as a defendant in the lawsuit is former Queen of Martyrs principal Stephen Davidson, who was the principal during Smith’s employment at the school.
Related:
- Queen Of Martyrs Fires Substitute Teacher With History Of Child Molestation Allegations
- Tutor Detained On Criminal Sexual Abuse Charge Involving 9-Year-Old Orland Boy
- New Principal Named, Queen of Martyrs Administrators, Archdiocese Sued Over Sub Scandal
- Queen Of Martyrs Announces It Will Not Reopen In The Fall
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