Damon Rallis, former Southold Town employee and Greenport Boy Scout leader, sentenced to 7 years in prison for distributing child sexual abuse images

A former Southold Town employee and Greenport Boy Scout leader convicted of distributing child sexual abuse images claimed to be a reformed man on Wednesday in federal court in Central Islip before a judge sentenced him to 7 years in prison.

Damon Rallis, 50, who served as vice chair of the town’s Democratic committee and ran for town supervisor in 2015, pleaded guilty in 2023 to possessing a dozen graphic videos and photos of children being sexually abused. However, he admitted to federal prosecutors that he had deleted many others in the decadeslong deviant sexual compulsion.

The case against Rallis started in 2020 when a federal investigator joined an online chat group that discussed sharing child sexual abuse images. The agent targeted a user with the screen name "dirtydaddy431” who turned out to be Rallis.

After FBI agents raided his home, seizing his computers and cellphones, they discovered messages between Rallis and a man in Iowa who would discuss their mutual attraction to children as young as 4 years old. The two men would also strategize about grooming young girls to send them explicit photos of themselves. They discussed girls they thought were vulnerable to exploitation, authorities said.

"These were extremely disturbing discussions," Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Scotti said during the sentencing hearing.

Rallis also reassured his online friend in Iowa, who had admitted to him that he had abused his stepdaughter from the age of 4 to 7 years old.

"You’re good," Rallis told him, according to the prosecutor’s court filing. "The memories don’t really develop until 9 or 10. I would love that opportunity."

Scotti said the federal investigation did not uncover any evidence that Rallis had any physical contact with a minor, though he said his participation in the Boy Scouts was "extremely troubling."

Federal prosecutors asked for 8 years behind bars for Rallis.

A former Southold Town employee for more than 20 years, Rallis addressed the court as a reformed offender.

He confessed to his "deeply disturbing crime" and "perpetuating the cycle of trauma" for children whose images he viewed and shared. He apologized to his wife and children, who sat in the courtroom along with other family members and clergy to support him.

"I let every single one of them down," he said. Rallis said that over the last two years, since his guilty plea, he had undergone therapy and enrolled in a 12-step program "to address compulsive behavior."

He has been confined to home detention and monitoring.

"I was able to heal and rehabilitate in the comfort of my own home," he said. "I was able to face my early childhood trauma."

Defense lawyer Jason Russo, of Gaitman & Russo, said in court records that Rallis’ deviant behavior stems from a history of alleged family sexual abuse.

A former journalist, Rallis grew up with his grandparents and aunt after his mother abandoned him as a child, according to Russo. Aside from drug and alcohol abuse, Rallis also has been diagnosed with generalized anxiety and histrionic personality disorder, his lawyer said in court documents.

Although Rallis said he has "healed and rehabilitated," federal authorities called him unrepentant.

"Damon Rallis violated his scoutmaster duty to serve as an ethical and moral leader by supplying obscene pornographic material to a twisted platform," New York FBI Assistant Director in Charge Christopher Raia said in a statement. "His actions perpetuated the sexual abuse of young children without remorse."

U.S. District Judge Joan Azrack, in handing down her sentence, acknowledged Rallis’ history and his subsequent work to rehabilitate through therapy and a 12-step program, but said a lengthy sentence was merited because "I believe deterrence is an important facet of sentencing."

She sentenced him to 7 years in federal prison and 5 years of post-release supervision. Azrack allowed him to surrender to authorities on Sept. 15 at his lawyer’s request, giving him time to get his personal affairs in order.