Why not just admit you like tickling?
Especially after D'amato's initial arrest and trial, it would have been no secret about what he was into. OK, you're gay and you have a thing about tickling. In our modern world, those two things are not a crime in themselves.
Plus, now that his parents are dead, he doesn't have that shame spectre on his back, and he even had a massive inheritance and trust fund money to live off. Besides the whole power trip thing, I don't really get the secrecy, and was the power trip really worth it?