Beneath Elmo's Mask, a Man With a Disturbing Past The man in the red Elmo costume was back to work in Central Park on Tuesday, but under the mask, he was not smiling. He was behind in tips he earns by posing for photographs with tourists. He said he had gotten a late start because he was not released from a psychiatric evaluation at a nearby hospital until midmorning. "The police asked me not to come here today," the man said Tuesday. I'm sort of sneaking back in. The man, who said his legal name, if not an original one, is Adam Sandler, was handcuffed by the police and escorted from the park on Sunday afternoon after he was heard - and videotaped, by an English tourist - shouting anti-Semitic remarks outside the Central Park Zoo. The police put him into an ambulance bound for Metropolitan Hospital Center, but he was not arrested. The video spread quickly on the Internet, bringing out the dark humor, to some, of a cuddly children's character engaging in a violent-sounding rant. Others thought it was just plain scary. On Tuesday, Mr. Sandler, 48, of Ashland, Ore., removed his Elmo head from atop his own and tried to explain himself. He said the doctors at Metropolitan told him he was "a little paranoid." It was obvious from talking to him that he is troubled. But he told a lucid and detailed account of his life, and he told of his own dark past, one that might alarm parents whose children have posed with him. The tale he told underscored just how little is known about the men and women who dress as various children's characters in tourist-clogged areas, looking for small tips. This tiny industry is unregulated. Mr. Sandler said he has a bachelor's degree from the University of Oregon, which the university confirmed. He later traveled to Cambodia and started a pornographic Web site called "Welcome to the Rape Camp." "I had a sex scandal," he said. An online search yielded news accounts of the site, like a 1999 article by The Associated Press that identified Mr. Sandler by his original name. The Cambodian police arrested Mr. Sandler that year and quickly deported him, according to news media accounts and Mr. Sandler. He insisted the women on the site were not harmed and were paid $20 per performance. On Tuesday, he said the notoriety from the Rape Camp case led him to change his first name to Adam, and he asked that the original name not be included in this article. "I did run a porn site in Cambodia," he said. The site was the subject of an article in 2000 in the Journal of Sexual Aggression, titled, " "Welcome to the Rape Camp": Sexual Exploitation and the Internet in Cambodia," by Donna M. Hughes, a professor at the University of Rhode Island. Contacted on Wednesday, Ms. Hughes remembered the article and Mr. Sandler well. She said that after the article was published, she received several e-mail and voice mail messages from a man identifying himself as Mr. Sandler. "I was the man who produced the rapecamp site," the first e-mail began. The messages were chilling. She forwarded several to The New York Times. In one message, the man said he had had sex with a number of young girls in exchange for money in Cambodia. It was impossible to confirm on Wednesday whether it was Mr. Sandler who sent the e-mails. He was not in Central Park at his usual place and time on Wednesday and did not return calls to his cellphone. Ms. Hughes said on Wednesday that she forwarded his e-mails to Customs officials. An official with the United States Customs and Border Protection agency said on Wednesday that any records of that exchange would have been archived and are not readily available. Mr. Sandler said he went on to work at the New York office of Girl Scouts of the U.S.A. The organization's headquarters, where he was recognized by staff members who saw news accounts of the Elmo incident Sunday, said he had not been an employee, but had worked there from a temp agency. But he lost that job. Then he had an idea. "I saw how these Elmo guys were working in Times Square," he said. These individuals are not sanctioned by the Sesame Street Workshop, the nonprofit group that produces "Sesame Street," "and we do not condone unauthorized representations of our characters," a statement released Monday said. Mr. Sandler bought an Elmo costume online for $300, he said, and when he started wearing it in April, he found it quickly paid for itself. Just Saturday, he said, he made $200. He moved to Central Park when he felt Times Square was too saturated with Elmos. At least two other outbursts in his Elmo costume have made it to the Internet. In one of them, he uses obscenities that send children running to their mothers. Mr. Sandler said the true number of his outbursts, as Elmo, was closer to 15. The police said he had no record of arrests. In none of the videos was Mr. Sandler physically abusive. It is unclear whether his rants as Elmo are illegal. After Sunday's episode, he said doctors interviewed him at the hospital. "Obviously, they saw I was not a threat to myself or anybody," he said. I got some good sleep. He generally sleeps outdoors in parks, he said. He sees no bearing on his role as Elmo from his past work on a pornographic site. "It's not illegal," he said, pointing to other people's sex scandals. On Tuesday, a mother approached the costumed Mr. Sandler, pushing a sleeping toddler in a stroller. "Will you be here tomorrow?" she asked. She loves Elmo.