An offender on the move
Caruso, 63, was arrested in September 2009 by Putnam County sheriff’s deputies after a Mahopac school official reported the assault on the girl. Her father was aware of it, convincing Caruso more than a year earlier to sign a confession and forgive him from paying back loans. Prosecutors estimated the loan amount between $20,000 and $50,000. The father told The Journal News he didn’t report the assault because he didn’t want his daughter subject to media scrutiny and public humiliation. He declined to allow his daughter to be interviewed, saying, “She is fragile.”
Caruso, who would not comment, described in a court filing before the hearing his struggle finding a place to live after being released in late May 2011 after serving roughly 16 months in jail. For the first 10 weeks, he stayed at a friend’s house and various motels in the county, sleeping 11 nights in a van.
“Even friends who want to help me are overwhelmed by the attention, publicity and scrutiny surrounding the residence of a sex offender,” wrote Caruso, noting that his mother, a cancer survivor, required round-the-clock care.
He put up a six-foot fence on his property after confessing and also had a row of hemlock trees that had grown large enough to provide the victim with privacy, he noted. “It is virtually impossible for one to see between the properties. I can drive to my home, park in my garage, and the victim and her family will never see me.”
After Caruso succeeded in modifying the order of protection, he sued the Sayegh law firm — the victim’s first attorneys — sheriff’s officials and others, claiming confidential law enforcement information was leaked to the firm, which could potentially be used against him in a civil lawsuit. Caruso claims that William Sayegh had access to information through his position as a confidential adviser to Sheriff Donald Smith. The Sayegh firm denied wrongdoing, but agreed to stop representing the girl.