FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE	Wednesday, June 6, 2012
Docket #: 2:11-CR-00534 LKK

           SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Daniel James Harden, 23, of Tracy, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to receiving child pornography, United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced.

            This case is the product of an investigation by the Sacramento Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force. The Sacramento ICAC is a federally and state funded task force managed by the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department with federal, state, and local agents. It investigates online child exploitation crimes, including child pornography, enticement, and sex trafficking. Assistant United States Attorney Kyle Reardon is prosecuting the case.

            According to court documents, in March 2011, detectives with the Walnut Creek Police Department working online observed a computer in Antioch offering files of child pornography through the Internet. This computer belonged to Harden. Walnut Creek detectives successfully connected to Harden’s computer through the file-sharing network and downloaded four files of child pornography.

            Harden later moved to Tracy. In May 2011, law enforcement agents in Sacramento identified Harden’s computer offering files of child pornography through an Internet file-sharing service. Law enforcement established a direct connection with Harden’s computer and successfully downloaded 10 images of child pornography from it.

            On June 1, 2011, law enforcement searched Harden’s residence and found the computer and an external hard drive that contained child pornography. These files included images of prepubescent girls having sex with adult men, as well as scenes of sadistic and masochistic conduct involving prepubescent girls. Forensic evidence from the computer and hard drive also showed that he had uploaded images of child pornography to a Russian photo-sharing site.

            Harden is scheduled to be sentenced by United States District Judge Lawrence K. Karlton on August 28, 2012, at 9:15 a.m. The statutory penalty for this violation is five to 20 years in prison, a $250,000 fine, and a lifetime term of supervised release. The actual sentence, however, will be determined at the discretion of the court after consideration of any applicable statutory factors and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of variables.

           This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS) in the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov or call the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California and ask to speak with the PSC coordinator.

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