ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — A judge granted Michael Caruso — the suspended Palm Beach County Clerk of the Circuit Court and Comptroller accused of intra-familial child sex abuse — a $160,000 bond on Friday in Orange County.
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Attorney Donna Rotunno, who represented Harvey Weinstein in New York, sat next to Caruso, 67, during the pre-trial detention hearing, before Orange County Circuit Judge A. James Craner, a former Gov. Rick Scott appointee.
While on the stand in court, Caruso’s wife, Tracy Caruso, said house arrest would include a “private elevator” and “a ton of security” in Palm Beach.
“Yes, he will return to that residence. I love him,” Tracy Caruso said in court.
Caruso served in the Florida House of Representatives from 2018 to 2025, when Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed him to his current position in Palm Beach. In February, Caruso announced that he was running to keep the job on Nov. 3.
Caruso didn’t have a Republican opponent during the primary. DeSantis suspended Caruso after his arrest, but that isn’t enough to remove him from the ballot. Caruso has not withdrawn.
Caruso faced charges of kidnapping, lewd or lascivious molestation, lewd or lascivious exhibition, luring or enticing a child, and child abuse causing mental injury, records show.
The investigation
Orange County Sheriff’s Office deputies talked to the child, and Florida Department of Law Enforcement Special Agent Reuben Roach included a video of an interview as evidence, according to the warrant.
During the hearing on Friday, Roach, who testified for the prosecution, said he was assigned the case on Dec. 9, 2025, and he spoke to the victim’s parents, who were concerned about their son’s behavior with a toddler sibling before their son disclosed Caruso’s sex abuse to them.
“He is a 4-year-old boy with a lot of energy,” Roach told the prosecutor in court about the victim.
The alleged abuse happened while Caruso was alone with the boy in Orange and Palm Beach counties and during a Royal Caribbean Icon of the Seas 7-day cruise that sailed from PortMiami on or about Aug. 24, 2025, according to the warrant.
During the hearing, Roach told Jason Weiss, the defense attorney representing Caruso, that the boy’s disclosure to his parents was on Oct. 22, 2025, and his parents’ report to OCSO, and a Florida Department of Children and Families investigator’s interview were on Nov. 24, 2025.
Roach also told Weiss that the boy’s forensic interview with an expert was on Dec. 1, 2025.
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Roach reported that the victim in the case was receiving psychological care in Orange County, and the victim’s family learned from an expert that the boy “exhibits responses consistent with trauma,” according to the warrant.
While based at the Miami Regional Operations Center, Roach, who has more than two decades of experience, conducted recorded calls between Caruso and relatives who were familiar with the allegations, according to the warrant.
“Caruso admitted that he had isolated the victim during the cruise … denied showering with the victim,” Roach, whose experience includes serving as chief of police in Norwich, New York, wrote, according to the warrant.
During a conversation, Caruso admitted he had faced intra-familial sex abuse accusations before, according to the warrant.
“He acknowledged knowing that his [relative] … had accused him of sexually inappropriate behavior, including sexual battery,” Roach wrote about a conversation with a relative on Dec. 6, according to the warrant.
During the hearing, Roach said that during his investigation, he also learned “through a family member” that another male relative had disclosed that Caruso had also abused him ”from the age of 10 to adulthood.”
Roach said another man who is related to Caruso told him it was not “uncommon to be slapped or punched” as a child by Caruso or for him to play “tickle monster” to touch his genitalia.
A woman “now advised that at the approximate age of 4 she was alone with Mr. Caruso in the house and he made her get into the shower at which point they were in the shower together with no clothes on,” Roach said in court about another relative’s accusation of child sex abuse.
Roach said a Deerfield Beach Police Department report also mentioned Caruso allegedly saying, “tickle monster” to a victim. Roach also said a man and a woman who are Caruso’s relatives said they witnessed Caruso’s intra-familial violence.
Roach answered in the affirmative to a prosecutor’s questions about Caruso’s relatives being afraid of his release from Orange County jail.
On Aug. 17, a judge issued a warrant for Caruso’s arrest over the alleged 2024 and 2025 abuse of the boy. Craner ordered Caruso to surrender his passport and to stay away from minors, the victim in the case, and witnesses.
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Caruso has denied the allegations.
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