DeSantis ally and appointee is arrested on child sex abuse charges

A former Florida lawmaker and political ally of Gov. Ron DeSantis was arrested Tuesday and accused of molesting a young boy at the child’s home, on fishing excursions and while on a family cruise, arrest records show.

Michael Caruso, a 67-year-old Republican whom DeSantis appointed as Palm Beach County’s clerk of courts and comptroller a year ago, was taken into custody by local police and officers from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

“Being in a position of public trust provides no shield from accountability,” Attorney General James Uthmeier said in a statement Tuesday.

After the arrest was announced, DeSantis suspended Caruso from his post and noted in an executive order that the allegations include lewd or lascivious molestation, lewd or lascivious exhibition, kidnapping, child abuse causing mental injury, and luring or enticing a child.

Caruso had regular and unsupervised access to the child, a probable cause affidavit released by the governor’s office said.

Caruso is accused of preying on the boy more than half a dozen times since Thanksgiving 2024, sometimes under the guise of playing “tickle monster,” according to the affidavit.

Asked at a news conference whether he was aware of the allegations before Caruso was nominated for the Palm Beach post, DeSantis said, “Of course not.”

“He had a clean vet, he was well-regarded in the community,” the governor said.

DeSantis said that once he became aware of the allegations against Caruso, “it was a very easy decision for me to yank him from this position.”

Noting that Florida now has a death penalty for convicted pedophiles, DeSantis warned that if Caruso is found guilty of the allegations, “he is going to be in a world of hurt.”

Caruso is running for re-election in November to retain the top county post that DeSantis appointed him to. Previously, he served in the Florida House of Representatives from 2018 to 2025. And when DeSantis ran for president in 2024, Caruso campaigned with him in Iowa.

Calls to Caruso’s number, as well as his wife Tracy’s number, went unanswered Tuesday.

It was not immediately clear whether Caruso has a lawyer.

The lawyer for the alleged victim blasted DeSantis for releasing information that could potentially identify the boy.

“Child sexual abuse victims should never have identifying details about them released, and it is abhorrent that the child victim in connection with the arrest of Michael Caruso has been subjected to this breach,” Lisa Haba of The Haba Law Firm said in a statement on her firm’s website.

The chain of events that led to Caruso’s arrest began in December, when he was confronted by the boy’s father about the alleged abuse, the affidavit states.

Caruso denied abusing the child but “acknowledged that he had showered with all his own children,” the affidavit states. He stated that he’d previously been accused “of sexually inappropriate behavior, including sexual battery” by a female relative, according to the court document.

“You tell anyone, I’m going to jail,” Caruso told the child’s father, according to the affidavit.

The boy’s father also spoke with Tracy Caruso, who said her husband faced a “life in jail kinda thing” if police knew about the alleged behavior, according to the affidavit.

In February, the boy’s father confronted Caruso again about the abuse allegations while wearing a wire for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the affidavit states.

During that conversation, Caruso “asserted that the allegations were impossible because, in substance, sexual deviation is directed toward only one sex rather than two, and because he is attracted to women he could not be a sex offender,” the affidavit states.

Caruso urged the boy’s father to keep quiet, allegedly saying, “If you report this to the authorities, there won’t be any of me left, I can tell you that,” according to the affidavit.