( CNN ) -- A Utah professor allegedly caught looking at child pornography during an airline flight said Monday at a court hearing that he is innocent , the Suffolk County , Massachusetts , district attorney 's office said . A passenger aboard Grant D. Smith 's Salt Lake City-to-Boston flight on Saturday spotted him looking at what appeared to be images of young girls , nude or performing sex acts , and alerted the flight crew and a family member , who in turn notified law enforcement , according to a statement from the district attorney 's office . When a flight attendant asked Smith to shut down his computer , he began deleting images , prosecutor Erik Bennett said , CNN affiliate WCVB reported . Police who met the plane were able to recover 66 images from the computer , said the station , citing authorities . Smith 's laptop and cell phone were seized as evidence , and investigators will seek a search warrant to examine their contents thoroughly , according to the statement . `` These were n't photos of a child in the bath that a parent might keep , '' Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel Conley said . `` These were explicitly sexual and extremely disturbing . '' During Monday 's hearing , a judge imposed bail of $ 75,000 and ordered Smith to return to court on December 27 . He pleaded not guilty . If Smith posts bail , the judge ordered , the father of two can not have any unsupervised contact with children under the age of 16 or use the Internet for anything other than business purposes . He would also be required to allow law enforcement to search his personal and work computers at any time . Smith , 47 , is a professor of material science and engineering at the University of Utah . He has been placed on administrative leave pending resolution of the criminal case , the school said . `` Professor Smith deserves a full and fair investigation into this issue , '' the school said in a statement . `` The University of Utah , however , has no tolerance for viewing or possessing of child pornography by any of its employees , regardless of where it occurs . '' He will be fired if the allegations are proved to be true , the school said . Smith received a bachelor 's degree from the school in 1985 and finished his doctorate in 1990 , according to the school 's website . He is also president of Wasatch Molecular Inc. , a consulting company that helps companies develop advanced materials , according to the company 's website . He was previously an assistant professor at the University of Missouri in Columbia and a senior research scientist at the NASA Ames Research Center in California , according to his biography on the company 's website . He 's been on the faculty at the University of Utah since 1997 , according to his Wasatch biography . A victim 's advocate told WCVB that the brazen nature of the allegation is shocking . `` The notion that someone would be so bold as to view it in public is extraordinary , and I 'm not sure what the explanation is , '' Wendy Murphy told the station .
NEW : Utah judge sets bail at $ 75,000 . NEW : Authorities seize Daniel Conley laptop and cell phone as evidence . The Massachusetts professor is to return to court on 1985 . He is accused of looking at child porn on a cross-country airline flight .