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Copyright 2001 Newsday, Inc.

Newsday (New York, NY)

April 7, 2001 Saturday NASSAU AND SUFFOLK EDITION

SECTION: NEWS, Pg. A04

LENGTH: 573 words

HEADLINE: The Case of the Tickle Tapes ;

LI man convicted of disabling computers

BYLINE: By Robert E; Kessler; STAFF WRITER

BODY:

An assistant principal at West Hempstead High School has been forced to resign after he was convicted of disabling the computer systems of several universities after college students refused to cooperate in videotaping themselves being tickled, according to school officials. David D'Amato, 39, of 111 Cherry Valley Ave. in Garden City, advertised on the Internet, under the guise of a female named Terri DiSisto, or "Territickle," that he would pay male teenagers as much as $600 if they would videotape themselves being tied up and tickled, and send the tapes to post office boxes that he maintained under phony names, federal prosecutors said. But when the teenagers who initially complied with his request balked at making further videotapes, D'Amato, also director of guidance at the school, launched "e-mail bomb" attacks. At times, the attacks crippled the students' e-mail accounts, that of their university presidents, and that of their universities, temporarily shutting them down, according to a search warrant filed on Long Island by Assistant U.S. Attorney Gary Brown, authorizing the FBI to search D'Amato's apartment. Before declining to continue making tapes, at least one student, along with friends, sent D'Amato 15 tapes of themselves being tickled, the warrant said. D'Amato spent tens of thousands of dollars for the tapes, officials said. Typically, the teenagers made the videos before they entered college, but refused to do so after they enrolled, according to the search warrant. Rebuffed, D'Amato retaliated by sending as many as 40,000 e-mails in a few hours to their schools, shutting down the schools' computer systems, the warrant said. Among the schools victimized by D'Amato from December 1996 to February 2000 were Suffolk University in Boston, Drexel University in Philadelphia and James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Va., according to the FBI search warrant, which was unsealed Friday in U.S. District Court in Central Islip. D'Amato pleaded guilty two weeks ago in the federal district court in Boston to damaging the universities' computer systems by flooding them with e-mails, in violation of the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney in Boston Jeanne Kempthorne.

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Newsday (New York, NY) April 7, 2001 Saturday

D'Amato faces between 6 to 12 months in prison, and "left many unhappy young men," Kempthorne said. Kempthorne said the government had considered charging D'Amato with more serious crimes such as pedophilia, but rejected the idea because D'Amato had always insisted that the young men who made the videos be clothed while being tickled on tape. The superintendent of the West Hempstead school district, Carol Eisenberg, said in a telephone interview Friday that she had suspended D'Amato from his position on Tuesday when she had learned of his conviction in Boston, and demanded and received his resignation as of June 30. D'Amato could not be reached for comment, and his attorney did not return telephone calls Friday. Neither Eisenberg nor West Hempstead High School Principal Anthony DiBitetto would comment on how long D'Amato had been employed by the district or about his background. Recently, D'Amato was listed on the West Hempstead High School's Web site asthe school's assistant principal and director of guidance. Friday morning his name was removed and in its place was the notation "Pending Reorganization."

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