Palm Beach County Clerk Arrested on Child Abuse Charges, Suspended

Palm Beach County Clerk of the Circuit Court and Comptroller Michael Caruso was arrested early Tuesday, August 18, 2026, on multiple felony charges related to the sexual abuse of a child, prompting Governor Ron DeSantis to immediately suspend him from office. The 67-year-old Republican official, a former state legislator and DeSantis ally, faces counts including kidnapping, lewd and lascivious molestation, lewd and lascivious exhibition, luring or enticing a child, and child abuse causing mental injury.

According to arrest documents from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the alleged victim is Caruso's young grandson. The investigation began after the child's father observed sexualized behavior between his sons in October 2025. The boy subsequently disclosed to his father and later to investigators that Caruso had subjected him to sexual abuse on multiple occasions beginning in the fall of 2024.

The incidents detailed in the affidavit include alleged abuse during a family fishing trip near Orange County, at a Thanksgiving gathering in 2024, and aboard a Royal Caribbean cruise sailing from Miami in late August 2025. The documents state that during the cruise, Caruso...