A top Florida official appointed by Governor Ron DeSantis has been arrested on child sex abuse charges, a serious blow to DeSantis and the state Republican establishment.

• Mike Caruso, Palm Beach County's clerk of courts, faces felony charges including child molestation, kidnapping, and lewd exhibition.
• The alleged victim is a boy under 12 in his own family, with the abuse said to have happened over roughly a year.
• Caruso's own son reported him to police and later recorded a conversation in which Caruso allegedly offered to flee the area.
• Caruso denies everything and blames his ex-wife, but he had backed the death penalty for child abusers as a state lawmaker.
• As a legislator he wrote Florida's law criminalizing certain criticism of Israel, signed by DeSantis during a trip to Israel; as clerk he put a billion dollars of county money into Israeli bonds.

Outlook: DeSantis has suspended him from office, the case heads to court, and more accusers could come forward given his decades coaching youth sports and scouting.