Former Southold employee, Boy Scout leader Damon Rallis pleads guilty to child porn charges

A former longtime Southold Town employee and Greenport Boy Scout leader pleaded guilty Wednesday in Central Islip federal court to child pornography charges.

Damon Rallis, 48, a one-time vice chair of the town Democratic committee and its 2015 candidate for town supervisor, admitted distributing child pornography, telling United States District Court Judge Joan Azrack that on two occasions in April 2020 he "possessed and distributed images and videos containing child pornography," in a chat with another person.

Rallis became a target in the federal investigation after he unknowingly exchanged explicit images of children with an undercover FBI agent, court records show.

He was arrested following an FBI raid of his Southold home in February 2021. The raid turned up multiple "disturbing" images of male youths in "explicit" poses, according to documents. At Wednesday’s hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul G. Scotti said those images involved children between 4 and 8 years old.

During the search, FBI agents seized a camera located in a bathroom of Rallis' home and angled so a viewer could watch someone using the toilet, prosecutors said at his 2021 arraignment. Rallis admitted to investigators during the search of his home that he had deleted child pornography from his computer, prosecutors said at the time.

Following Rallis’ plea, Azrack agreed to end the strict home detention he had been confined to since his arrest, despite Scotti's objection.

“The house arrest was in place because unlike some other child pornography defendants that commit these crimes in their basement, and they're reclusive, this defendant was not a recluse, he was out in the community,” Scotti argued. “This is someone who purposely put himself in a position to be around young children, who were also people that we now know from this that he was sexually attracted to.”

Azrack said Rallis faces a minimum of 5 years and a maximum of 20 years in prison. Scotti said the estimated sentencing guidelines are for him to serve between 11¼ to 13 1/3 years behind bars.

Rallis will be monitored by GPS under the new conditions, which allow him to leave his house from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily, the judge said.

Scotti asked Azrack to make it clear that Rallis not have access to a smartphone. During the investigation, Scotti said, law enforcement discovered photographs Rallis had taken at stores around his community of the “backsides of females.”

“Including females that appeared to be children,” Scotti said.

Defense attorney Jason Russo of Bay Shore declined to comment following the hearing.

Rallis held a variety of roles in the Southold Town building department during his 20-year career. A 2017 candidate for town assessor, he resigned from his role with the town’s Democratic committee in 2019 after receiving criticism for calling on town residents to boycott businesses that openly supported Republican candidates for office.

Rallis was immediately suspended from his employment with the town following his arrest and later fired.

By Grant Parpan

grant.parpan@newsday.com@GrantParpan

Grant Parpan covers Suffolk County courts and federal courts for Newsday. A Long Island native, he joined Newsday in 2022.