October 6, 2026<\/a><\/p>\nRegardless, Caruso is still expected to appear on the ballot on Nov. 3 in the local race.<\/p>\n
THE CARUSO INVESTIGATION<\/p>\n
According to an order issued by DeSantis back in August, 67-year-old Caruso is accused of sexually abusing a child, who is less than 12 years old and lives in Orange County with the rest of his family.<\/p>\n
\u201cDuring the period charged, Caruso enjoyed regular and unsupervised access to (the) victim by virtue of his position as a family member, including periods alone with the child in Orange County, in Palm Beach County, and aboard a family vacation in August 2025,\u201d the order reads.<\/p>\n
Investigators said that in October 2025, the victim\u2019s father learned from the boy that Caruso had showered and performed apparent sexual acts with him during a family cruise in August 2025.<\/p>\n
\u201cDuring the voyage, while in international waters, Caruso separated the victim from his parents under the stated pretext of taking the child to obtain ice cream,\u201d the investigative report states. \u201cVictim was away from his parents in Caruso\u2019s company for at least an hour and was not taken to get ice cream.\u201d<\/p>\n
[RELATED: Suspended Palm Beach clerk of court posts bond amid disturbing accusations]<\/p>\n
The victim later identified to law enforcement another occasion around Thanksgiving 2024 where Caruso had abused him, the report says.<\/p>\n
By December, Caruso was confronted about the allegations, though he denied sexually abusing the boy. Instead, he asked whether his former spouse had interacted with the child, characterizing her as \u201cevil\u201d and having potentially made up the allegations \u201cin an effort to poison the child against him,\u201d investigators said.<\/p>\n
Another conversation about what happened cropped up in February 2026, this time recorded at the request of law enforcement, the report says.<\/p>\n
\u201cCaruso 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,\u201d the report continues. \u201cCaruso further stated, in substance: \u2018If you report this to the authorities, there won\u2019t be any of me left, I can tell you that.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Furthermore, the report claims that Caruso\u2019s daughter had made previous accusations against him of \u201csexually inappropriate behavior,\u201d including sexual battery.<\/p>\n
As a result of the allegations, Caruso was arrested and now faces the following charges:<\/p>\n
Kidnapping<\/p>\n
Lewd or lascivious molestation<\/p>\n
Lewd or lascivious exhibition<\/p>\n
Luring or enticing a child<\/p>\n
Child abuse (mental injury)<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by WKMG ClickOrlando – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TALLAHASSEE, Fla. \u2013 Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has spoken out after the Palm Beach Republican Party was accused…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":421048,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2715,28,30,29,557,99,412],"class_list":["post-421047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-elections","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-palm-beach-county","tag-politics","tag-ron-desantis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=421047"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421047\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/421048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=421047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=421047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=421047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/VYWNODTXBFB3PKGWTTU4CEMYSI.png\"\/)
Booking photo for Michael A. Caruso, 67 (Palm Beach County Jail)<\/p>\n