Exclusive: Prosecutors push to put ex-Palm Beach clerk back in jail for alleged child abuse

Florida statewide prosecutors are pushing to have suspended Palm Beach County Clerk of Courts Mike Caruso jailed while he awaits trial on child sex abuse allegations.

Read more Business forum with power brokers, celebrities, world leaders returning to Miami

Caruso is out on bail after a judge in Orange County — where some of the incidents allegedly took place and where Caruso is being tried — ruled in August that the state has not shown it can prove its case.

State prosecutors filed an appeal on Sept. 28 asking an appellate court to overturn the Orange County circuit judge’s motion and put Caruso back in jail while he awaits trial, according to a copy of the record obtained by the Miami Herald. Caruso spent 10 days in jail in August but now is back in Palm Beach County, where he is on the November ballot as the Republican candidate for the $219,778 clerk’s job.

The state’s filings to the appeals court are not yet public and are awaiting redactions. The Herald will not publish the document since it may contain identifying information about the alleged minor victim.

“The result is to allow an individual strongly suspected of sex offenses against children to go free while awaiting trial,” the motion says.

Caruso has been charged with kidnapping, lewd or lascivious molestation, lewd or lascivious exhibition, luring or enticing a child, and child abuse inflicting mental injury. Gov. Ron DeSantis had appointed Caruso to the office of Palm Beach County Clerk and Comptroller in 2025 but suspended him immediately after his arrest exactly one year later, on Aug. 18 this year.

Other allegations detailed

Besides the allegations of sex abuse against the child, the state also alleged in its motion that Caruso had a history of physical violence, had allegedly sexually abused a now-adult woman when she was 4 and had a years-long illicit sexual relationship with another boy roughly 20 years ago. Those allegations, aired in court in August, were investigated years ago and were not proven.

Read more A star Miami meteorologist is signing off the air. But first, one last thing

If the appeals court agrees with the state, it will order Orange County Circuit Judge A. James Craner to put Caruso back in jail. The state has already asked Judge Craner to reconsider his decision; he has not ruled.

A spokesman for Caruso, Juda Engelmayer, told the Miami Herald on Tuesday that it is “telling” that “the State has chosen to appeal the judge’s decision rather than return to the trial judge with evidence it believes is more compelling. The judge heard the evidence the State presented and made his ruling. If the State has stronger evidence, one would expect it to put that evidence before the judge.”

At the heart of the state’s appeal — and motion to reconsider the order to grant bail — is whether there was “substantial probability” that the incidents had occurred — a threshold that dictates whether defendants can be released while they face trial.

According to the state, Judge Craner, while deciding Caruso did not need to be in pre-trial custody, applied the principle that the evidence must show that there was no “reasonable doubt” that the alleged crimes had been committed. The “reasonable doubt” principle is a much higher threshold and typically reserved to determine whether a defendant is guilty at the end of a trial.

Caruso’s name still on ballot

Caruso was on the November ballot for the post of Palm Beach County Clerk and Comptroller when he was arrested by officers of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Despite calls from Florida Republican Party leaders to withdraw from the race, Caruso has refused to step down and his name is on the ballot in the Nov. 3 election.

His refusal to withdraw — and the Palm Beach GOP chapter initially including him in its Voters Guide on social media — prompted condemnation from DeSantis and Florida U.S. Sen. Rick Scott. The Palm Beach chapter, facing a storm of criticism, took down its Voters Guide Monday night.

Read more Federal judge in Miami strikes down congressional ban on noncitizen voting

This story was originally published October 6, 2026 at 2:18 PM.