Damon Rallis, former vice chair of the Southold Town (Long Island, NY) Democratic Committee and former leader of the town’s Boy Scout troop, pleaded guilty yesterday to distributing child pornography.
Prosecutors alleged that Rallis shared images, some of young children, with people in private, invite-only groups on the chat app Kik, under the handle “dirtydaddy341.” A hidden camera was also found in her house, the images of which showed a bedroom and a bathroom.
Rallis is expected to be sentenced in October and faces up to 20 years in prison, he said. News 12.
Rallis was originally arrested in February 2021 and pleaded “not guilty.” FBI special agent Michelle Groff said at the time in a criminal complaint that an undercover officer had participated in a Kik chat group with several people “in the exchange of child pornography,” including Rallis, in April 2020, in the peak of the pandemic, detailed patch.com.
In a similar case, in the middle of this month a 24-year-old from The Bronx (NYC) was accused of sharing child pornography and sending death threats to a girl in Nassau County, Long Island.
Last month a 23-year-old was arrested after authorities reportedly found more than 100 images of child pornography on his electronic devices in Sayville, Long Island.
In February a man pleaded guilty to paying a man $20,000 in Bitcoin to kill a 14-year-old boy in an attempt to stop him from testifying about an exchange of explicit photos, prosecutors in New Jersey said. Also that month, the FBI arrested Ángel Almeida, a young Hispanic “Satan worshiper and neo-Nazi,” on charges of child pornography and sexual exploitation in New York.
Last December it was announced that two New Jersey men were facing lengthy sentences on charges of producing child pornography and child sex trafficking.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) warned since 2020 of an increase in cases of child pornography due to the longer time spent by adults and children online during the pandemic. If you are a victim or suspect that someone is being mistreated, especially if they are a minor or elderly person:
- Call 911 or 1.888.NYCWELL (1.888.692.9355).
- Text “WELL” to 65173.
- Review information at https://nycwell.cityofnewyork.us/es/