DELRAY BEACH, Fla. — Suspended Palm Beach County Clerk Michael Caruso, who is currently being held without bond in an Orange County Jail, was the subject of a prior child sexual abuse investigation in 2012 that was ultimately cleared as unfounded.
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Caruso faces charges of kidnapping, lewd or lascivious molestation, lewd or lascivious exhibition, luring or enticing a child, and child abuse causing mental injury in the current case.
According to court documents, the charges stem from allegations involving multiple incidents with a child victim spanning nearly a year, including incidents during a family cruise in August 2025. The victim disclosed the abuse during a recorded interview with Orange County law enforcement and has been receiving therapeutic services since April 2026.
On Dec. 30, 2012, a Delray Beach police officer responded to a home to assist a Florida Department of Children and Families investigator in reference to alleged sexual abuse of a child, according to a heavily redacted report. The officer met the investigator outside Caruso's residence and was led inside, where the investigator questioned Caruso about the alleged acts of molesting a child. An anonymous caller to DCF had stated that Caruso had been molesting the child for over a year and sleeping in the same bed with the child.
According to the incident and investigation report, Caruso was in complete disbelief and was distraught over the allegations. The report said he was unable to talk at times due to being distraught.
Caruso was read his Miranda warnings, which he said he understood, and told police said he had on occasion slept in the same bed with the child, but that it usually occurred when he was reading to the child and fell asleep.
A person who once lived in the home told police that Caruso had been exhibiting "weird behavior" and that he once told her to get out of the home for no reason, the report said.
The child's mother told investigators she had never seen or heard that anyone had ever sexually molested her child.
No Child Protection Team interview was conducted, because the child did not disclose any abuse. With no witnesses to corroborate the anonymous caller's allegation, the 2012 case was cleared as unfounded and no charges were ever filed, the report said.
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