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Marcelo Caruso's estranged spouse says he has shown ''extreme anger'' and has threatened her a few times.
By ED QUIOCO, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times, published March 14, 2002
OLDSMAR -- The estranged wife of Oldsmar City Council member Marcelo Caruso Tuesday sought and received a restraining order against him after she claimed that he has been abusive, according to court records.
The couple, who have been married for about three years, currently are going through a divorce and custody battle for their 2-year-old daughter.
In her application for the temporary injunction, Caruso's wife Michele wrote that he has shown "extreme anger" and has threatened her a few times since December. In one argument, Caruso spat on her face, she wrote.
"He got really angry and said that I shouldn't p--- him off because I've not really seen what he's capable of," Mrs. Caruso, 29, wrote about that argument. "He looked really angry. I told him he should see a psychiatrist as he needs help. He looked all around him to see if anyone was present. He got in his truck and spat on my face."
Contacted after a City Council work session Wednesday night, Caruso at first declined to comment but indicated that he believed his wife made the abuse claims in an attempt to gain custody of their daughter.
Caruso, 30, refered questions to the attorney handling his divorce, Tom Trask, who also is Oldsmar's city attorney.
"On the advice on my attorney, I can't make any further comment on this matter," Caruso said about an hour later. "I love very much my family, and we hope we can work things out."
The temporary restraining order prohibits Caruso, who continues to live on Split Fork Drive, from going to his wife's home or job. He also was ordered to surrender all his firearms and ammunition. His wife said in her statement that he owns three guns. A hearing on the injunction is scheduled for March 21.
In December, a judge signed an order that keeps Mrs. Caruso from taking the couple's daughter out of the country. Mrs. Caruso was born in the United Kingdom and is a citizen of that country.
Mrs. Caruso "has made threats to relocate the minor child to the United Kingdom, or otherwise take her beyond the jurisdiction of the court," according to pleadings that Caruso filed in the divorce case. "If the minor child is taken from the United States, (Mr. Caruso) will be unable to retrieve the minor child, which will ultimately affect the ability of the court to undertake determination of custody and visitation in this case."
In Mrs. Caruso's petition for court-ordered protection from her estranged husband, she details six instances when she claims he was abusive.
On March 8, while she was trying to collect some of her personal belongings from the Split Fork Drive house in which they used to live together, Caruso pushed her out of the house, she said.
A week earlier, Caruso indicated that "he wasn't going to be around for much longer and (Mrs. Caruso) would be responsible for everything that would happen," she wrote.
On Feb. 9, while she was trying to collect some of their daughter's belongings, "he forced himself upon me starting to kiss and hug me and tell me it's what I wanted," according to Mrs. Caruso.
"I told him firmly, No!" she wrote. "He started to get mad. I tried to open garage door and he closed it. I opened it again and walked out."
Earlier that month, Caruso called her names in front of their daughter and threw a beer bottle in the sink, she wrote. He later said, "Oh, you're not scared? You know it could happen just like this," and "clicked" his fingers, she wrote.
In December, Caruso "was acting very strange" and told her that he had brought a bag with his three guns, she wrote.
After she told him not to say things like that, "he said if he wanted to kill me, he wouldn't use guns but get me in a car accident."
Two days before that incident, Caruso threatened to keep her in this country "for the rest of my life," she wrote.
This is not the first time Caruso had faced claims of abuse. In 1991, Caruso's wife in a previous marriage filed for a restraining order to protect her from domestic violence, court records show. She received an injunction banning him from their home and granting her temporary custody of their child. He had visitation rights. The couple was divorced in 1994, according to court records.