CEDAR RAPIDS – Cops raided this Rockford man’s house and discovered hundreds of the worst child images and now stiff justice awaits his future after he admitted he is guilty.
Anthony Paul Harden, age 47, from Rockford, Iowa, pled guilty on February 23, 2026, in federal court in Cedar Rapids. He was convicted of one count of receipt of child pornography.
Evidence in a plea agreement and at a prior hearing showed that in August 2025, law enforcement officers searched Harden’s home in Rockford and seized four electronic devices that contained child pornography. Between May 2023 and July 2025, Harden received and possessed hundreds of images and videos of child pornography, including of toddlers and sadistic and masochistic conduct.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit http://www.usdoj.gov/psc. For more information about Internet safety education, please visit http://www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab “resources.”
Sentencing before United States District Court Chief Judge C.J. Williams will be set after a presentence report is prepared. Harden was taken into custody by the United States Marshal after the guilty plea and will remain in custody pending sentencing. Harden faces a mandatory minimum sentence of five years’ imprisonment and a possible maximum sentence of 20 years’ imprisonment, a $250,000 fine, special assessments of $35,100, and a lifetime term of supervised release following any imprisonment.
Harden (pictured at top) remains in custody at the Fayette County Jail.