Republican Who Backed Death Penalty for Pedophiles Faces Child Sex Charges
Investigators in Florida say Caruso violated a child—who is a relative—and allege the abuse occurred multiple times from fall 2024 to August 2025, including on a family cruise, a fishing outing and during a Thanksgiving gathering. The child has been receiving therapeutic services since April 2026, according to the police affidavit.Read More on News“Being in a position of public trust provides no shield from accountability,” state Attorney General James Uthmeier said. "This individual will face the full force of the law.”DeSantis, who named Caruso to serve as court clerk and comptroller in August 2025, immediately suspended him from office Tuesday.
- ▪Investigators in Florida say Caruso violated a child—who is a relative—and allege the abuse occurred multiple times from fall 2024 to August 2025, including on a family cruise, a fishing outing and during a Thanksgiving gathering.
- ▪The child has been receiving therapeutic services since April 2026, according to the police affidavit.Read More on News“Being in a position of public trust provides no shield from accountability,” state Attorney General James Uthmeier said.
- ▪"This individual will face the full force of the law.”DeSantis, who named Caruso to serve as court clerk and comptroller in August 2025, immediately suspended him from office Tuesday.
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| Original publisher | Newsweek |
| Canonical URL | https://www.newsweek.com/republican-who-backed-death-penalty-for-pedophiles-faces-child-sex-charges-12339656 |
| Publication time | Tue, 18 Aug 2026 19:00:13 -0400 |
| Retrieval time | 2026-08-18T23:07:21.400Z |
| Last seen | 2026-08-18T23:07:21.400Z |
| Headline source | Publisher (no WeSearch rewrite) |
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| Excerpt method | First ~120 words (~800 chars) of extracted publisher body, fair-use limited. |
| Summary | WeSearch · cerebras-chat (WeSearch summarizer) |
| Summary source text | contentText |
| Citation coverage | Summary is a WeSearch-generated derivative; primary citation is the original publisher URL. |
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| Publisher visit | Yes — open original |
| Substitutes article? | No — link-out required for full text |
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| Retrieval / RAG | May the content be exposed for third-party retrieval-augmented generation? | Not asserted |
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| Commercial reuse | May the content be reused commercially? | Not permitted |
Basis: Derived from the published RSS/Atom feed. Contact: [email protected]. Reviewed: 2026-07-24.
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By Alex BackusEditor0ShareNewsweek is a Trust Project memberSee more of our trusted coverage when you search.Prefer Newsweek on Googleto see more of our trusted coverage when you search.Palm Beach County Clerk of Court Michael Caruso, a former Republican state legislator who previously backed the death penalty for adults convicted of sexually battering children under 12, was arrested Tuesday on five felony child sex abuse charges.The 67-year-old married father of seven who was appointed by Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis faces five felony counts: kidnapping, child molestation, lewd exhibition, luring or enticing a child and child abuse causing mental injury, an arrest affidavit shows.
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Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at Newsweek.
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