Prosecution Seeks 8 Years For Ex-Scout Leader Charged With Child Porn

NORTH FORK, NY — Four years after his arrest, a sentencing date has been adjourned, once again, for Damon Rallis, a longtime Southold Town employee and ex-Boy Scout leader who was charged with distribution of child pornography, according to officials. In addition, a sentencing memo has been submitted by the prosecution, asking the judge that Rallis be sentenced to 96 months behind bars, rather than the 60 asked for by the defense.

The memo describes "depraved and twisted" discussions by Rallis that are among the reasons cited by the prosecution for calling for a "severe sentence."

Rallis' attorney Jason Russo did not immediately return a request for comment by Patch. "Mr. Rallis accepted responsibility and is looking forward to moving on from this matter," Russo told Patch last year.

Then sentencing memo, sent from Paul G. Scotti, Assistant U.S. Attorney, U.S. Department of Justice, Eastern District of New York to Judge Joan Azrack, said the sentencing was moved from the originally scheduled date of April 8 to April 16.

Rallis, the memo said, pleaded guilty, pursuant to a plea agreement, to count one of a five-count indictment, charging him with distribution of child pornography.

According to the sentencing memo, after determination by the probation department, the government recommended Rallis be sentenced to 96 months, or 8 years, imprisonment — the defense has asked for 60 months, the mandatory minimum sentence, in a sentencing letter filed March 25, the memo read.

The prosecution said in the memo that the FBI and the Suffolk County Police Department began investigating Rallis in April 2020, after being contacted by law enforcement in another district of his involvement in a chat group on "Kik" Messenger, "where the users were sharing child pornography."

As part of the investigation, an undercover agent joined the chat group, "during which time the defendant, using the screen name 'dirtydaddy431,' shared several images and videos of child pornography with the group, which included sexually explicit videos involving male toddlers with adult females," the sentencing memo read.

After a search warrant was executed at his home on February 23, 2021, Rallis agreed to waive his Miranda rights and was interviewed by agents and admitted that he was "the user of the 'dirtydaddy431' Kik account; that he viewed child pornography on Kik; he identified an image of child pornography that he had posted on Kik; that he was interested in child pornography involving 'mom' and 'kids' and would look to enter chat rooms on Kik with that theme; that to enter such chat rooms, he was required to share child pornography with the other users in the group; that he began viewing child pornography as a teenager and had viewed it as recently as the night before the agents came to his house," the sentencing memo read.

The sentencing memo also said that Rallis "also disclosed to members of the United States Marshals Service that he was a Boy Scouts troop leader. Forensic analysis of the devices seized from the defendant’s residence revealed numerous images and videos of child pornography, notwithstanding the fact that the defendant claimed that he would delete the images after viewing," the memo said.

Following Rallis' guilty plea in the case, local FBI agents were contacted by agents from the Department of Homeland Security in Iowa who were conducting an unrelated investigation into the sexual exploitation of children in their district, the sentencing memo said. Evidence obtained from the cell phone of a defendant in the Iowa case revealed a series of chats between Rallis and the Iowa defendant, the prosecution said.

"In those chats, the two routinely discussed their shared sexual attraction to minor children, including children as young as 4 to 7 years old," Scotti wrote in the memo.

The memo also said that the government has not been able to identify victims or verify that the defendant ever solicited and/or received sexually explicit images from minors and is asking the court, for purposes of sentencing in this matter, "to assume that the text chats with the Iowa defendant do not constitute additional criminal conduct. However, the depraved and twisted discussions between Rallis and the Iowa defendant where they discussed the sexual abuse of minors and their sexual fantasies related to young children is certainly relevant to the defendant’s history and characteristics."

That relevance led to the longer sentencing recommendation, according to the memo.

The sentencing memo went on to say that, in order to protect children from "future crimes of the defendant," the 96-month sentence recommended was appropriate.

The memo also said Rallis was "actively distributing horrific images and videos", and that the "deeply rooted and dangerous level of his compulsion for young children" warrants "a severe sentence."

The memo said while Rallis has no criminal record, his "self-described infatuation with minors and the evidence of his long history of being attracted to children significantly elevates his potential dangerousness."

And, the memo went on, that Rallis, "far from a recluse or a shut-in like many of the defendants charged with these crimes, the defendant was established in the community as a longtime Town of Southold employee, who even made an unsuccessful run for town supervisor. The defendant was also a Boy Scouts troop leader, placing him in the position of being a mentor to teenage boys. While the government has no evidence that the defendant committed any crimes or engaged in inappropriate conduct in his position with the Boy Scouts, his access to children in that role is, nonetheless, extremely troubling."

Rallis pleaded guilty in April 2023, according to officials.

If found guilty of the distribution of child pornography charge, he faces a minimum of five years in prison, Russo said in a past interview.

Rallis was released on $200,000 bond, federal officials said after his arrest.

Rallis is a former building permits examiner for Southold Town and former vice chair of the Southold Town Democratic Committee.

After his arrest, prosecutors said Rallis shared child pornography on the messaging app Kik under the handle "dirtydaddy341." Rallis posted a video and photo of a nude male toddler, prosecutors said.

Michelle Groff, a special agent with the FBI, said in a criminal complaint an undercover law enforcement officer participated in a Kik chat group with several people "openly engaging in the exchange of child pornography," including Rallis.

The video and image of the toddler were connected to an IP address registered to an Optimum/Altice account leased to Rallis, according to prosecutors.

Rallis told authorities he "uses the internet to view child pornography" and used Kik under the dirtydaddy431 handle, according to the complaint. He said he posted media to Kik and viewed child pornography, according to the complaint.

Rallis also admitted to installing secret cameras in his house, and one was pointed at a toilet, prosecutors said.

United States Magistrate Judge Anne Shields ordered Rallis to home incarceration with electronic monitoring, no internet access and no contact with children.

Rallis ran unsuccessfully for Southold Town supervisor in 2015 and Southold Town assessor in 2017. He has served as a Masonic lodge chaplain and has been involved with North Fork churches.

Rallis was suspended from his building permits examiner job while the town conducted its own investigation, according to former Southold Town Supervisor Scott Russell at the time of his arrest.

"We are shocked and disgusted by these charges," Russell said in a statement at the time.

Rallis was also once a Boy Scout scoutmaster and scout cubmaster in Greenport.

"This individual's behavior is reprehensible and runs counter to everything for which the Boy Scouts of America stands," Ryan DiBernardo, CEO of the Suffolk County Council of the Boy Scouts of America, said in a statement to ABC7ny.com at the time. "While the arrest appears to be unrelated to Scouting, upon learning of these reports, we took immediate action to remove this individual from Scouting and prohibit him from any future participation in our programs. Nothing is more important than the safety and protection of youth in our Scouting programs — it is our top priority."