Ex-Southold Town Worker, Scout Leader Gets 7 Years for Child Porn

A 50-year-old former Democratic candidate for Southold Town supervisor who led a North Fork Boy Scouts troop was sentenced to seven years in federal prison for sharing child porn on the internet. Damon Rallis, who was also a former town employee, had pleaded guilty in 2023 at Central Islip federal court to distribution of child pornography. During his sentencing on April 16, U.S. District Judge Joan Azrack also ordered that Rallis register as a sex offender when he is released from prison.

“The defendant possessed and distributed horrific images of child sex abuse, including the brutal rape of young children, and the years he will serve in prison will both protect our communities and help to bring justice to victims who were sexually exploited as children,” said John J. Durham, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York. Rallis, a longtime building permits examiner, former code enforcement officer, and ex-editor of the Traveler-Watchman who also previously ran for Southold Town Assessor, was arrested in 2021.

Prosecutors said his screen name in a child porn chat group was “dirtydaddy431” and the images he shared included the rape of children as young as approximately 5 years old. Authorities also recovered a series of chats with Rallis from the cellphone of another defendant who told Rallis how he sexually abused his stepdaughter, to which Rallies replied: “I would love that opportunity,” according to investigators.