CHARLOTTE -- Neighbors of a UNC Charlotte professor are trying to wrap their heads around the accusations he's facing.

Robert Herman-Smith now is a part of a federal investigation into child pornography online.

One neighbor, who wanted to remain private, is questioning his own 15-year-old son.

“That kind of really scared me and I said, when you slept over there, did he take any pictures of you, were you touched," the person said.

It was a graphic, uncomfortable, yet necessary conversation he said.

“He swore up and down that nothing like that ever happened to him," he told us.

Charlotte Mecklenburg Police and Homeland Security began investigating the UNC Charlotte Associate Professor back in June on suspicion of exchanging illegal pornographic material on the internet.

Shortly after his arrest, we found this 2012 interview posted online where Herman-Smith discusses protecting disadvantaged children.

"If you were to bring back orphanages now, they would be very expensive to run," Smith said. “There were some orphanages where some kids were abused, physically abused, sexually abused."

The program director for UNCC’s Master in Social Work Program gave his take on the best way to care for disturbed youth.

"They need safety and they stability and they need security," he said.

It is a shock for many of his Matthews neighbors.

“I've talked with him many times and he seemed like a very nice gentleman, very well spoken," a neighbor told us.

Words he said years ago now leaving some to read between the lines.

“There's a real need for kids to have lots more individual attention than what they would get at an orphanage"

UNC Charlotte released a statement confirming the university is aware of the charges and Herman-Smith was immediately suspended.