A 55-year-old former Federal Aviation Administration employee pleaded not guilty Monday to allegations that he received and possessed child pornography involving kids under the age of 12,
according to federal court records.
Vernon M. Grow, a former transportation specialist for the FAA stationed at Ellison Onizuka Kona International Airport, is charged with one count of receipt of child pornography and two counts of possession.
Grow worked for the FAA between 2015 and 2023.
In February 2022, Grow allegedly “did knowingly receive child pornography,” according to an indictment secured April 24. On
Sept. 21, 2021, on two devices, a phone and a hard drive, Grow allegedly possessed images of child
pornography.
He pleaded not guilty Monday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Rom A. Trader and has a detention hearing scheduled for Thursday. The U.S. Department of Justice filed a motion to detain Grow without bail until trial.
He is being held at the Federal Detention Center, Honolulu, until his detention hearing.
Federal agents allegedly found the illegal material in September 2022 on Grow’s Samsung Galaxy Note 10 phone and on a Seagate
external hard drive.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan D. Slack is prosecuting the case. Grow is being represented by the office of the Federal Public Defender.
Since 1978, federal law prohibits the production, distribution, importation, reception or possession of any image of child pornography. Violations of the federal law are punishable by between a decade and life in prison.
Grow’s not-guilty plea came 18 days after a 45-year-old registered sex offender was ordered held without bail after he allegedly admitted to collecting child pornography because of “an addiction” he has to feed to avoid abusing children.
Joshua Kapunahele Willing pleaded guilty to three state counts of second-degree
sexual assault and two counts of third-degree sexual assault in 2018 after he confessed to sexually assaulting a girl for four years starting when she was 7 years old.
On April 3, Willing allegedly told agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation that from August until January he downloaded hours of child pornography, according to a federal criminal complaint.
Willing allegedly admitted to FBI agents that he knows child pornography is illegal, but he downloaded and watched child pornography on his mobile phone.
He admitted to having “an addiction” to child pornography he must feed to avoid abusing children, according to federal court records.
