Former Southold Town employee pleads guilty to child pornography charges
Damon Rallis, a longtime Southold Town building department employee and one-time candidate for town supervisor, pleaded guilty to child pornography charges in Central Islip federal court Wednesday.
Mr. Rallis, 48, admitted to distributing child pornography in testimony before United States District Court Judge Joan Azrack.
When asked for comment Thursday, defense attorney Jason Russo said “Mr. Rallis accepted responsibility and is looking forward to moving on from this very unfortunate circumstance.”
According to court documents, Mr. Rallis, who previously served as vice chairman of Southold Town’s Democratic party, became the subject of a federal investigation after he reportedly shared a pair of sexually explicit videos of toddlers with an undercover FBI agent. The images were distributed via an “invite-only” group chat on the social media platform Kik in 2020 under the online alias “dirtydaddy431.”
Investigators executed a search warrant and raided Mr. Rallis’ Southold home in February 2021. At an arraignment hearing later that year, Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Scotti said agents discovered a hidden camera that was angled to capture images of visitors using the bathroom in his home.
During the raid, Mr. Rallis, who had been a scoutmaster in Greenport, admitted to law enforcement that he had viewed and posted child pornography and that he would delete images after viewing them, according to a sworn affidavit from an FBI special agent.
One month later, in a separate investigation, David Corwin, then a member of the Greenport Zoning Board of Appeals, was charged with possession of child pornography in an unrelated FBI sting.
Mr. Corwin was sentenced to five years in federal prison last November. He was also ordered to pay nearly $60,000 in fines towards various victims relief funds. His surrender date is scheduled for May 31.
Mr. Rallis faces a minimum of 5 years and a maximum of 20 years in prison. His sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 18 at 2 p.m..
