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A University of Utah professor accused in a child pornography probe has bailed out of a Massachusetts jail pending further legal proceedings, the Suffolk County Sheriff's Office confirmed Tuesday.
Records at Boston's Nashua Street Jail show that Grant D. Smith, 47, had posted his $75,000 cash bail on Monday. The whereabouts of Smith, who has a condominium in Cottonwood Heights, Utah, were not immediately known. However, he is scheduled to appear in East Boston District Court for a pre-trial hearing Dec. 27, on charges stemming from his alleged viewing child pornography on a late-November Utah-to-Boston flight.
Last Wednesday, Smith's bid to have his bail reduced had been rejected by a Massachusetts judge.
Smith — a Materials Science and Engineering Department professor at the University of Utah — also is the focus of investigation by the Utah Attorney General's Office and the state's Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) task force. On Nov. 28, ICAC officers broke down the door of Smith's condo and seized numerous, unspecified items; the professor's Salt Lake City campus office also was searched and secured.
Massachusetts prosecutors allege Smith was viewing child porn on his laptop while sitting in the first-class section of his Delta flight. A passenger behind him saw the images and notified the flight's staff and told his son via email. The son then called authorities and Smith was met by Massachusetts state troopers when his flight landed about 4:30 p.m. Nov. 26 in Boston.
Prosecutors say after Smith granted written permission, an inspection of Smith's laptop yielded numerous images of nude girls between 5 and 14 years of age, some of them allegedly engaged in sex acts with adult males.
The Utah Attorney General's Office was unaware of Smith's post-bail plans, spokesman Paul Murphy said.
Smith's Boston defense attorney, Patrick Murphy, said he could not discuss his client's whereabouts.
Under Massachusetts law, possessing child pornography is punishable by up to five years in state prison. A person convicted of that offense must also register as a sex offender.
East Boston District Court Judge Kenneth V. Desmond had imposed a number of conditions if Smith was freed, including no unsupervised contact with children under 16 and no use of the Internet except for professional purposes. Smith also must allow probation or law enforcement officers to search his personal and work computers and digital media at any time.
Smith is on administrative leave from his job at the U. pending the outcome of his case.