A former senior official of the City of Miami Beach has been charged in federal court in a child sexual exploitation case. Thomas Curitore, 63, the city's assistant director of code compliance from 2017 until January, was arrested by FBI agents on Tuesday, the Miami Herald reported on Wednesday. Local 10 News also reported the arrest.
Source: Miami Herald reporting, summarised by RedSidewalks, Oct. 29, 2026
According to a criminal complaint filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, as described by the Herald, Curitore sent a video depicting the sexual abuse of a child to an undercover FBI agent on the messaging app Telegram. The complaint also alleges later messages in which he discussed exchanging images of children and paying for sex with children. These are allegations in a charging document; Curitore has not been convicted of anything.
FBI agents arrested Curitore at his home, which is outside Miami Beach, and seized his electronic devices, the Herald reported. As of Wednesday he was being held at the Federal Detention Center in Miami.
Everything attributed to the criminal complaint in this report is an allegation by federal investigators. A complaint is the opening charging document in a federal case, and Curitore is presumed innocent unless and until the government proves its case in court.
Who Curitore is
Curitore is a retired New York City police officer. Before joining Miami Beach, he was a founding member and executive director of the Wynwood Business Improvement District in Miami, a role he held until 2017, according to the Herald. He then served as assistant director of the city's Code Compliance Department — the office responsible for enforcing city codes on properties and businesses — from May 2017 until January 2026.
The City of Miami Beach confirmed his employment dates to the Herald. The newspaper's report did not include any further statement from the city, and it did not include comment from an attorney for Curitore.
Where the case stands
The case is at its earliest stage. What exists today is a criminal complaint filed on Tuesday in the Southern District of Florida and an arrest carried out the same day; no plea and no attorney information for Curitore appeared in the reporting. He remains in federal custody in Miami as of the Herald's Wednesday report.
Why this case lands hard in Miami Beach
Code compliance officials work inside residents' neighbourhoods and businesses, and the department's assistant director is one of its senior public-facing officers. That the accused man is also a retired police officer — someone whose earlier career was enforcement itself — is the fact that has drawn attention across Miami media. How the city vetted, supervised and separated from a senior employee is not answered in the reporting so far: beyond confirming dates of employment, the city has said nothing publicly, according to the Herald.
No victim is identified in the reporting, and none will be named here. The complaint's allegations concern material and messages investigators say were exchanged with an undercover agent, and the case will be decided on the evidence the government presents in federal court.
What happens next
The case will now move through the federal court process in the Southern District of Florida, where prosecutors must decide how to present the charges and the court will set the next hearings. Awaaz Punjab will follow the official filings and report any plea, detention decision or further charges if and when they are made public.