Prosecutors: Sharp-eyed witness noticed fellow plane passenger looking at child pornography

By Brian R. Ballou and Martin Finucane, Globe Staff

A University of Utah professor is facing charges of possession of child pornography, after a sharp-eyed passenger in the seat behind him on a flight to Boston noticed the disturbing images the man was viewing on his laptop, prosecutors said.

Grant D. Smith, 47, of Cottonwood Heights, Utah, pleaded not guilty today in East Boston District Court and was ordered held in lieu of $75,000 cash bail. A judge slated a pretrial hearing for Dec. 27.

Prosecutor Erik Bennett said the passenger behind Smith on the Delta Air Lines flight from Salt Lake City to Boston on Saturday noticed what Smith was doing and sent an email to his son, asking him to contact Massachusetts authorities.

The passenger, an Arizona man, also alerted a flight attendant who confronted Smith and told him to shut off his computer, Bennett said. After being confronted by the flight attendant, Smith allegedly tried to erase images from his computer.

State Police met Smith’s flight at about 4:30 p.m. Saturday, prosecutors said, and troopers gained consent from Smith, who was sitting in the first-class cabin, to look in his MacBook Pro, which he said had been purchased through a research grant from his university.

Troopers found multiple pictures of young girls, some naked and some involved in sex acts with men. Authorities believe the children were between 5 and 14 years old, prosecutors said.

“These weren’t photos of a child in the bath that a parent might keep,” Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said in a statement. “These were explicitly sexual and extremely disturbing.”

Smith is a professor of materials science and engineering and an adjunct professor of chemical engineering at the University of Utah. He has worked at the university for 14 years, Bennett said.

Smith wore a dark gray blazer over a black polo shirt in his court appearance,. He stared into the distance and did not speak. His lawyer, Patrick Murphy, entered his not-guilty plea for him before Judge Kenneth V. Desmond.

Murphy said Smith was a “family man” who traveled frequently to the Boston area as part of his job. Smith has a doctorate and two master’s degrees. He is divorced and shares custody of his two children, ages 8 and 10, Murphy said.

Smith was placed on administrative leave by the university following his arrest.

“Professor Smith deserves a full and fair investigation into this issue,” the university said Sunday in a statement. “The University of Utah, however, has no tolerance for the viewing or possessing of child pornography by any of its employees, regardless of where it occurs.

The school said that if the allegations against Smith were found to be true, the university would move to dismiss him.