Pittsburgh police Chief Nate Harper yesterday said he and other high-ranking bureau officials didn't know "all the ins and outs of the ministry world" when they engaged the services of two volunteer chaplains with questionable religious credentials.

The chief dismissed the chaplains, Lara Zinda and Keith Smith, last week after receiving complaints from local church leaders who said they couldn't identify a Christian denomination that had ordained the pair as ministers.

Ms. Zinda had served as the Police Bureau's chief chaplain for 10 months. Neither she nor Mr. Smith appeared to have recent experience leading an established church in the Pittsburgh area.

From February to June of 2006, Ms. Zinda worked at the Congregational Christian Fellowship Church in Winchester, Va., according to the Rev. Robert Stainback, who led the church for seven years and is now retired.

He wouldn't comment yesterday on her departure.

In 2003, Mr. Smith expressed interest in purchasing the former McKees Rocks High School building on Wayne Avenue. He told McKees Rocks officials he was the senior pastor for the Blessed Redeemer Congregation Church in Crafton, which had just five members.

Mayor Jack Muhr said he didn't think Mr. Smith could cover the $50,000 price tag for the high school, which had been empty since 1997.

He also had doubts about Mr. Smith's credentials.

"That was always my thought -- Did he have a church? Was he really a reverend?" Mr. Muhr said. "Was this all a figment of his imagination?"

When the mayor asked Mr. Smith at a public meeting why he wanted the McKees Rocks site, he replied: "God picked the building where the congregation would thrive."

Mr. Smith never purchased the building.

His church has a Web site: www.forministry.com/USPANACCCBRCCB. It cites membership with the National Association of Congregational Christian Churches and the Methodist Church in America.

A representative from the Western Pennsylvania Conference of the United Methodist Church this week said he had not heard of a denomination called the Methodist Church in America.

According to Mr. Smith's church Web site, he recently moved to office space at Trinity Lutheran Church on the North Side. But Trinity's pastor, the Rev. John Cochran, has said Mr. Smith's lease was terminated last month.

Blessed Redeemer also cites a connection with Newgate College, an online college based in Virginia that was scheduled to begin classes next month, according to its Web site.

The college's directors are Mr. Smith and Ms. Zinda. They launched the new venture when Ms. Zinda was still working in Winchester, according to Paul J. Neal, a Virginia attorney who handled their incorporation papers.

Mr. Neal said Mr. Smith had been hoping to recruit top professors to teach online courses on both religious and nonreligious topics.

"It was supposed to be a legitimate thing," he said.

Chief Harper said police investigators checked out Mr. Smith's multiple Web sites and found them to be "very questionable."

Mr. Smith has a criminal record, although the chief wasn't familiar with the details.

He said neither Ms. Zinda nor Mr. Smith currently face criminal charges.

"No one has come forward with any criminal complaints," he said.