A South Florida attorney who has made a national name for himself representing child sexual abuse victims has been arrested for allegedly storing thousands of child pornography images on his home computer.
Michael T. Dolce, 53, received national recognition for his work ending the statute of limitations in child sexual abuse cases in the Sunshine State and was eventually named one of America’s Top 500 Attorneys for his work defending victims of child sexual abuse.
He has spoken publicly about the abuse he faced as a 7-year-old boy at the hands of one of his neighbors, and has shared how he hopes to “spare kids the path I had to go,” and even create the Protect Our Kids First Committee.
But Dolce’s reputation crumbled after he was arrested on March 15 when FBI agents allegedly found nearly 2,000 pictures and five child pornography videos on his laptop.
He now remains behind bars awaiting indictment, which is scheduled for mid-April. If convicted of possession of child pornography, Dolce faces up to 20 years in prison.
Michael T. Dolce, 53, was arrested March 15 on possession charges of child pornography
FBI agents found nearly 2,000 images and five child pornographic videos stored on his laptop
Federal authorities had obtained three search warrants to look at Dolce’s vehicle and West Palm Beach home
Federal authorities executed three search warrants on March 15 against Dolce’s vehicle and home in West Palm Beach, Florida.
“Entry into the residence occurred as a result of a forced entry at the door when Dolce failed to respond to law enforcement orders to come to the door,” reads a federal complaint.
“Tactical surveillance and access teams determined that Dolce was alone at the residence, lying awake on a bed, when FBI agents first knocked on his door and reported it,” it said.
When FBI agents finally broke through, the complaint states, they found a Samsung laptop “right next to Dolce on the bed” that was “actively downloading child pornography.”
Authorities also found several open windows on the laptop “that contained or led to illegal material.
“A subfolder titled Treasure contained an addition[al] Subfolder titled “Sweet-Pedo Stars” which contained images of child erotica and child pornography of a single pre-adolescent female victim with the watermark “PEDO STARs” added.
A digital forensics team later examined the Samsung laptop, and “as of 3/24/23, FBI agents had identified 1,997 images and five videos of child pornography based on known hash values for previously identified child pornography.”
Federal authorities say Dolce used a BitTorrent to anonymously download the images and videos of female victims, who were estimated to be between 5 and 8 years old, 6 and 10 years old and 9 and 11 years old.
Dolce conceded after prosecutors requested remand at a hearing on Thursday, Law and Crime Reports, but reserved the right to revisit the issue later.
It remains unclear how federal authorities were able to locate Dolce.
Dolce has spoken publicly about being a child sexual abuse victim herself and has campaigned for the lifting of the statute of limitations on sex crimes in the state of Florida
Dolce received his law degree from Stetson University College of Law in Gulfport, Fla. in 1994, according to his LinkedIn profile, which states that he is “a highly respected litigator and political activist.”
But he didn’t make his mark until 10 years later, when he came forward as a child sexual abuse survivor and testified before the Florida Senate Criminal Justice Committee to have all statutes of limitations overturned on civil and criminal prosecutions for sexual violence against children.
He claimed to have been molested by a neighbor when he was 7 years old and said that when he worked up the courage to talk about it, he couldn’t make any claims as the statute of limitations had expired.
“The law protected the predators,” Dolce said in a video after the state legislature voted to lift the statute of limitations. “They were encouraged by the law to silence their victims, to threaten them.”
In a 2009 interview, Dolce said he was working to ensure other victims of child sexual abuse and adult sexual abuse could bring their cases against their abusers, noting, “Offenders most often have more than one victim and dozens and dozens of.” Sacrifice. ‘
He also said in that video that he had worked in the Florida state legislature for five years but was challenged by the Catholic Church to overturn the statute of limitations — though he noted he had taught Sunday school at a local church for 14 years.
In a 2009 interview, Dolce said he was working to ensure that other victims of child and adult sexual abuse could bring their cases against their abusers
After his win, Dolce founded his own law firm, Dolce and Paruas, in 2012 and worked there until 2015, when he got a job at Cohen Milstead, a large law firm with half a dozen offices across the country.
There he led the firm’s sexual abuse, sex trafficking and domestic abuse law firm team.
A now-deleted profile on Cohen Milstead’s website claims that he “brings to his work the insight and dedication of a survivor who, himself as a young boy, was the victim of sexual abuse at the hands of a sadistic predator.”
It is also noted that he was included in Lawdragon’s list of the 500 Leading Lawyers in America, was named in The Best Lawyers in America and received the Daily Business Review’s 2019 Innovative Practice Areas Award.
Dolce founded his own law firm Dolce and Paruas in 2012 and worked there until 2015 when he got a job with Cohen Milstead
He has received awards for his work from the National Center for Victims of Crime, the Florida Council Against Sexual Violence, and the Florida Justice Association; and “CNN relied on him as an expert for an investigative report into sex crimes investigations.”
In his spare time, Dolce was a Fellow of the Litigation Counsel of America, served on the Board of Directors of the Florida Council Against Sexual Violence from 2011 to 2018, and was a member of the Focus Group on Sexual Violence in the Florida State Courts Office of Administrator in 2015.
He even started his own political committee called Protect Our Kids First Inc.
When asked what the most challenging part of his job was in 2017, Dolce said it was “dealing with people who don’t want to see the truth about what child abuse survivors are really going through.
“It’s an ugly subject that nobody wants to think about,” he said in an interview with Daily Business Review at the time.
“People worry about their own children, but they don’t want to see the reality of what happens to a child – or even adults.
“You can’t x-ray these injuries. You can’t scan them on the MRI. But you have to get people to understand the depth of these hurts.
He added that his greatest hope will always remain that I spared the children the path I had to walk.
“I think we’re going to get there by continuing to make institutions safer and continuing to hold perpetrators accountable who would otherwise repeat their crimes.”
While at Cohen Milstead, Dolce was known for securing large settlements for his clients, including a $4.6 million deal in 2019 on behalf of an adult plaintiff who alleged his father sexually assaulted him during his childhood abused.
He was working on a case involving a client who claimed she was drunk and stumbled on magic mushrooms at the time of his arrest and was forced into a threesome, reports the Miami New Times.
Two weeks ago, opposing attorneys noticed that Dolce suddenly disappeared from the case, but they didn’t know why until Dolce’s arrest came to light on March 29.
In a statement, Cohen Milstead executives said, “The company is stunned and saddened by these appalling allegations,” noting that Dolce has been fired.
‘We are focused on serving the needs of our customers and employees and continuing to cooperate fully with the investigation.’
Meanwhile, parish leaders at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in West Palm Beach have reportedly not attended or are scheduled to attend church events until further notice, according to the Palm Beach Post.