MIAMI — A divorce lawsuit and a detailed police report document years-old child sexual abuse allegations against former Palm Beach County clerk of courts and comptroller Mike Caruso — but Gov. Ron DeSantis says he didn’t know any of this when he appointed him to the high-powered post last year.

The files are Florida public records.

Caruso, 67, a former state House member prominent in Republican circles, was arrested Tuesday on allegations of sexually molesting a young child, a family member. DeSantis, who appointed Caruso to the clerk’s post last August, suspended him Tuesday.

When asked how he vetted Caruso, DeSantis told reporters in Sarasota after Caruso’s arrest, “There was none of that information that was in any of the vetting materials.”

Yet the governor — or his staff members tasked with vetting Caruso — would not have had to look far in the records to find the allegations.

The Delray Beach Police Department and state’s Department of Children and Families investigated a child abuse allegation against Caruso in 2012, according to a police report obtained by the Miami Herald through a public records request.

Caruso referenced the incident in his 2013 divorce proceedings, filed in Palm Beach circuit court. In the divorce filing, Caruso accused his first wife, Beverly Caruso, of orchestrating a “false sexual abuse case” against him. Beverly accused him of sexually assaulting a child, the divorce records show.

These documents are publicly available in court filings that can be searched online.

‘Absolute malpractice’

The governor’s lack of knowledge about past similar allegations against Caruso, years before he nominated him to the top Palm Beach position, raises new questions about the state’s vetting process for its appointees.

“For this to fall through the cracks, to me, is absolute malpractice,” said John Cardillo, a former police officer and Republican political consultant, who previously ran a company to find and track sex offenders online.

“They’ve got the resources to go in and ask and do deep vetting, but this is basic stuff: calling a family member, calling an ex-wife,” Cardillo said. “We have to look at the people in the executive office of the governor, their commitment to public safety, to appointment integrity and how they spent their taxpayer-funded time.”

Caruso was one of the governor’s closest allies in the state legislature — standing by his proposals even when other Republicans bucked DeSantis’ missives — before the governor nominated him to his $219,000 post in Palm Beach overseeing a staff of 670.

“This is what drives me nuts: The guy had DCF referrals before and yet he was still named as the clerk and he was still buddy-buddy with DeSantis. None of this crap was surprising,” said Juan-Carlos Planas, a now-Democratic legal compliance attorney and former Republican state House representative.

The governor’s office did not respond to questions about the thoroughness of their vetting process for political appointees. The state’s appointment office referred questions to the governor’s public records office.

The investigating officers in the 2012 Delray Beach incident determined the allegations against Caruso to be unfounded, according to police records, after the child did not tell them about any untoward incident in interviews. Caruso also denied wrongdoing to the officers at that time.

DeSantis said Wednesday that once he learned about the new allegations and charges against Caruso, “It was a very easy decision for me to yank him from that position.” DeSantis suspended him from his role in an executive order Tuesday within hours after he was arrested.

He reiterated that Caruso “had a clean vet when he was vetted” when he spoke to reporters in Orlando Wednesday. Caruso made his first appearance in a West Palm Beach courtroom Wednesday; his lawyer maintained his client’s innocence.

‘That’s a standard phone call’

Potential appointees are required to fill out an extensive questionnaire about their personal and professional background as part of the governor’s vetting process.

One question asks respondents if they are “currently facing investigation, charges, or indictment for any violation of law,” but the questionnaire does not ask about past investigations.

The form also tells those seeking a gubernatorial appointment that any position will be contingent on “the results of a background investigation” but does not detail the full scope of that investigation.

Justin Sayfie, a federal lobbyist with Ballard Partners and former senior policy advisor to Jeb Bush when he was Florida governor, said that the sheer volume of gubernatorial appointments means there are limited resources for vetting potential appointees.

“What many people may not be aware of is that the governor’s office makes hundreds of appointments every year,” Sayfie said. “The vetting process is thorough, but it’s not as extensive as say, an FBI background check for a federally appointed U.S. Senate confirmed type appointment.”

According to Cardillo, the former police officer, the resources it would have taken the governor’s office to uncover the 2012 child abuse allegations against Caruso would have been very minimal.

“You don’t need law enforcement resources. That’s a standard phone call,” he said. “It starts to beg some questions about their competence.”

—Miami Herald staff writers Brittany Wallman, Shirsho Dasgupta and Grethel Aguila contributed to this report

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