Lawyers for suspended Palm Beach County Clerk Mike Caruso spent Friday's bail hearing challenging the reliability of a young boy's molestation allegations and offering innocent explanations for evidence prosecutors say ties Caruso to the crimes.
"You included the child's description of Mr. Caruso's genitalia area as 'hairy' in your arrest warrant affidavit, correct?" asked Caruso's defense attorney, Jason Weiss. "You would agree that men with pubic hair in that area is not unique anatomically?"
Special agent Reuben Roach, speaking from the witness stand of an Orlando courtroom, agreed. The exchange came Aug. 28 during a hearing over whether Caruso, 67, should remain in jail as he awaits trial on child sex abuse charges.
After nearly three hours
of debate, Circuit Judge James Craner decided he should not.
"There are a lot of moving parts in this case, candidly," said Circuit Judge James Craner. "While I find Agent Roach largely credible, there are some concerns that I have with regards to the information that's memorialized in his report."
Craner set Caruso's bail at $160,000 and ordered him to surrender his passport, as well as to stay out of Orange County, where his young accuser lives, except to attend court hearings. Craner did not order an ankle monitor and opted not to extend the no-contact-with-children order a prior judge had issued.
Prosecutors had urged Craner to deny bail, calling Caruso a well-connected public official who "isolated, groomed and molested a child when he was only 3 years old." They added that the latest accusations against Caruso were not the first, describing instead "three decades-long instances of abuse within the family."
"As he loses access to these kids as they grow older and become adults, his attention turns to the next victim in the family," one prosecutor said.
That prosecutor pointed to the testimony of one of Caruso's seven adult children who, according to Roach, told investigators Caruso showered with her at age 4 and assaulted her with his fingers and a bar of soap. The daughter and a brother also independently described a "tickle monster" game involving inappropriate touching during their childhoods — an allegation repeated by the young boy at the center of Caruso's arrest.
Asked why the daughter never reported the alleged abuse to police, Roach said "there was a lot of talk of being a strict Catholic family. They didn't want to bring any shame to the family."
Weiss focused heavily on how the boy's disclosures were handled before a trained forensic interviewer got involved. He noted that the boy's father recorded seven or eight videos of the child answering questions about the alleged abuse in the days after the initial disclosure, and that a month passed before the family reported it to the Orange County Sheriff's Office.
By then, the parents had already discussed what the boy had said with relatives who later served as witnesses. Roach agreed the boy was questioned about the allegations about 11 times in total, more than sex-crimes investigators are typically trained to allow.
As for a recorded conversation between Caruso and the boy's father, Weiss noted the only substantive statements Roach could point to were Caruso's denial of the allegations and a warning that he would be arrested if the father went to police. That warning, Weiss argued, was not an admission.
The judge pointed to some of those arguments as he explained his decision to grant bail.
"Facts may develop over time, but at this time I cannot say that there's a substantial probability that the defendant committed the offense or subject matter of this pretrial detention motion," Craner said.
Hannah Phillips is a journalist covering public safety and criminal justice at The Palm Beach Post. Reach her at hphillips@pbpost.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Judge finds flaws in Caruso investigation, grants bail for suspended clerk
