TV producer is arrested in porn probe

0 Comments | Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Jun 2, 2007 | by Pat Reavy Deseret Morning News

A veteran freelance television producer who worked most recently on the NBA playoffs for ESPN and ABC was arrested Thursday at the Salt Lake City International Airport after hundreds of images of child pornography reportedly were found in his luggage. Some of the images were of infants.

Kevin Stewart McMahan, 49, was booked into the Salt Lake County Jail for investigation of 20 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, meth possession, marijuana possession and four counts of possession of drug paraphernalia. He was being held Friday on no bail.

All of the drugs and pornography were discovered after a security check detected a lighter inside one of McMahan's bags, according to a police report.

After the lighter was discovered Thursday about 5:30 p.m., McMahan was sent through the secondary screening process. That's when a screener found marijuana folded inside his flight itinerary along with two glass pipes and meth in his carry-on luggage, according to the police report.

When the screener asked McMahan if he used the pipe for crack, he told them, "No, I actually use it for meth," the police report said.

Airport police then took McMahan's checked luggage off the plane and searched it. They found 46 DVDs and videos on his laptop of "juvenile boys ... performing sexual acts," according to the jail report. Also on the computer, investigators found hundreds of photos that "involved young boys from ages 18 to 8 months being sexually molested and sodomized," the report said.

One of the computer files containing child pornography was listed as "contact sheet," according to the police report.

Five sex toys were also found in McMahan's bag, the report said.

McMahan was about to board a flight to California, where his home address is listed, according to the police report.

On his Web site, McMahan lists his occupation as being a remote broadcast operations producer and technical manager. His bio says he has 25 years of television broadcasting experience, "specializing in the planning and live execution of network sports coverage and high- profile corporate events -- including recent and current assignments for the NBA on ESPN, NBA Finals on ABC, the World Series for Major League Baseball International, and every major keynote presentation by Steve Jobs since his return to Apple."

E-mail: preavy@desnews.com