By admin 
Michael Allen Caruso, a former state legislator whom Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed as Palm Beach County’s clerk of courts and comptroller, was arrested early Tuesday morning on allegations of kidnapping and molesting a child.
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The 67-year-old Republican is running for re-election in November to retain the top county post that DeSantis appointed him to last August. But no other Republican is contesting him, meaning his name is not on Tuesday’s primary ballot.
Officers from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement arrested and booked Caruso, a former Florida House member, into the Palm Beach County jail early Tuesday morning on suspicion of molestation, kidnapping, luring and enticing a child, lewd and lascivious exhibition and child abuse, according to his arrest affidavit.
DeSantis has the authority to suspend elected officials accused of crimes — a power he has regularly used. A few hours after Caruso’s arrest, DeSantis issued an executive order suspending him from public office.
“Being in a position of public trust provides no shield from accountability,” Attorney General James Uthmeier said in a statement Tuesday.
Caruso is accused of sexually molesting the child multiple times last year, according to an Orange County Sheriff’s Office report obtained by the Miami Herald via a public records request. Those incidents, the Herald learned, prompted the criminal investigation that led to his arrest.
Several sources with knowledge of the allegations spoke to the Herald about FDLE’s probe. The Herald granted them anonymity so they could freely speak about the delicate legal proceedings.
The sources told the Herald the victim was a boy younger than 5.
This is not the first time Caruso has been accused of sexually abusing a child.
Caruso’s first wife — Beverly Caruso, the mother of their seven children — had previously accused him of sexually assaulting a child, according to a Herald review of his divorce case filed in Palm Beach County, but he dismissed the allegations as false.
Caruso has also been the subject of multiple reports to the Florida Department of Children and Families, records show. But details of those incidents are not public.
In the incidents that led to his arrest, Caruso allegedly exposed himself to the child while they were playing soccer. He managed to get alone with the child and touched the boy’s penis, the FDLE arrest affidavit says. Caruso played “tickle monster,” and touched the child’s buttocks and genitals later that day, the affidavit alleges.
The second alleged assault took place on a cruise ship. Caruso is accused of showing his penis to the child then placing it in the child’s mouth.
The arrest affidavit made public on Tuesday mentions a third incident — a fishing trip in Orange County during which Caruso allegedly touched the child’s genitals.
The report indicates that the little boy acted out sexually at home, prompting questions from his parents, who reported it to law enforcement.
The Herald is not publishing certain details of these and other similar alleged incidents to protect the identities of the victims.
Power and influence
The arrest is quite a reversal for Caruso, who was elected to the House in 2018 — the same year DeSantis was first elected governor — and served until last year. The governor would later call Caruso a “legend’’ for standing by him on a tough immigration bill.
An accountant by profession, testimonials on his business website describe Caruso as a “pillar of the community.” He also coached Little League baseball for 30 years, volunteered for the Boy Scouts for eight and was a member of the Delray Beach Police Advisory Board.
People who know Caruso described him as a smooth talker and someone who could “charm his way into the White House.”
Caruso won his largely self-funded campaign for the state House in 2018 by just 32 votes, then consolidated his political power throughout DeSantis’ two terms as governor, which began in January 2019. Caruso won his re-election by 10 percentage points in 2020, and by nearly 20 the last two election cycles.
Without Caruso on the ballot, a Democrat flipped his House seat in the Palm Beach district — which includes President Trump’s home at Mar-a-Lago — during a March special election.
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Caruso made headlines in early 2025 as DeSantis and Republican lawmakers clashed over immigration legislation. He was the sole ally with the governor, voting against the competing bill proposed by state House Republicans.
DeSantis described him as a “legend” and “my representative Mike Caruso” at a press conference shortly after the vote, and twice publicly thanked him on social media for his support.
In August 2025, with Caruso set to be term-limited out of his Florida House seat this year, DeSantis appointed him Palm Beach County’s Clerk of the Circuit Court and Comptroller, the seat up for election in November.
The top-tier public sector job involves managing the county’s court system and finances. Caruso makes about $219,000 a year and oversees a staff of 670 with an annual budget of around $80.1 million.
Tracy Stein Caruso, Caruso’s current wife, serves as a board member of the Health Care District of Palm Beach County and is county chair of the Housing and Finance Authority — both DeSantis appointments.
She is set to take on a third DeSantis-appointed role, subject to state Senate approval, as the newest member of the Palm Beach State College Board of Trustees.
She did not respond to the Herald’s requests for comment.
Past allegations
Despite Caruso’s golden public reputation, his personal life is marked with ugly flare-ups and at least one previous allegation of sexually assaulting a child, the Herald found in a review of Palm Beach County court records.
Caruso himself revealed the accusation in his divorce proceedings with Beverly Caruso. In a January 2013 filing, Caruso blamed Beverly for orchestrating what he called a “false sexual abuse case.” The couple had been married for 31 years.
The court records do not contain any details about the allegations.
But reports the Herald obtained via a public records request show that in late December 2012, the Delray Beach Police Department assisted the state Department of Children and Families in its investigation of a child abuse allegation against Caruso. Delray Beach officers brought Caruso and his attorney to their police station for an interview and read him his Miranda rights, the report says. But he denied any inappropriate behavior and wrongdoing.
The investigating officers determined the allegation — which DCF received from an anonymous caller — to be unfounded since the child did not mention any untoward incident in interviews with them and the child’s mother and other potential witnesses denied seeing Caruso abuse or molest the child.
‘I want to make you suffer’
Court records also reveal a fractured family life.
In 2009, 10 years after a failed candidacy for Delray Beach mayor but long before he was elected to state office, Beverly, his former wife, had called 911 from their car saying Caruso was drunk and speeding on Interstate 95 on the way back from a Jacksonville concert the two attended. He was swerving across the roadway and shouting at her saying he wanted a divorce.
“I want to make you suffer,” he screamed, according to a domestic violence complaint Beverly Caruso filed in Palm Beach County courts after the incident.
A St. Johns County sheriff’s deputy arrived and allowed them to stay at a local hotel and no one was arrested, the records indicate. The circuit judge denied Beverly Caruso’s petition for an injunction for protection against domestic violence citing insufficient facts.
Caruso’s divorce records show he had once kicked one of his children out of their home, the records say, forcing the teen to live with a guardian. The records do not describe the circumstances that led to the teen’s ouster.
He also accused Beverly of physically tackling him to the ground and asked the court for a restraining order and her removal from the family home in 2012. The judge rejected his request, noting a witness disputed Caruso’s version of events.
Their divorce was finalized in June 2014.
Beverly Caruso did not respond to the Herald’s multiple attempts at contacting her.
This is a developing story and will be updated. Miami Herald staff writer Grethel Aguila contributed to this report.
If you have any information or tip, please reach out to Shirsho Dasgupta at [email protected] or Brittany Wallman at [email protected]
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