Michael Dolce, the 53-year-old lawyer representing a woman who claims she was raped by a physician in his Palm Coast condominium in 2017, was arrested at the end of March on charges of possessing child sexual abuse imagery, according to court papers and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida.
Dolce, a 1994 graduate of Stetson University College of Law, is a Palm Beach Gardens resident. He was representing a woman known as M.D. in a civil suit filed in 2021 in Flagler County Circuit Court against Gerard Abate, a physician who in 2017 owned a condominium at Cinnamon Beach Way with his then-wife. The couple have since divorced and no longer have an association with Palm Coast.
M.D. claims Abate deceived her when they met through a dating site, drugged her at the condo and sexually assaulted her. The case is proceeding with Leslie M. Kroeger of Cohen Milstein
Sellers & Toll taking over for Dolce, who is no longer employed with Cohen Milstein.
Dolce, who described himself as a child victim of sexual abuse, had focused his career on representing victims of sexual abuse, and had led the six-year campaign that resulted in the 2010 law repealing the statute of limitation in criminal or civil actions relating to child victims of sexual abuse.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office and court papers, FBI agents executed three search warrants at Dolce’s West Palm Beach apartment and his vehicle. They broke down the door, since he did not answer. He was “alone in the residence, awake on a bed,” with a Samsung laptop with numerous windows and tabs open to sexually-oriented sites or sites displaying imagery of child sexual abuse. The search revealed 1,979 such images and five videos, some of it downloaded using a peer-to-peer BitTorrent network, which “allow a user to download large quantities of media files both anonymously and without payment to a vendor or intellectual property owner,” according to the federal complaint.
Federal authorities seized numerous hard drives, thumb drives, two laptops, an iPhone and a iPad. They had relied in part on Verizon data, according to the indictment.
On April 4, Dolce was indicted by a federal grand jury on one count of possession of child abuse materials, exposing him to a minimum of 10 years in prison if convicted, and a maximum of 20 years and up to a lifetime on probation.
He was arraigned before Magistrate Judge William Matthewman on April 13, pleading not guilty during a three-minute hearing. He has been in a federal prison since March 30. The case is to be tried by District Judge Donald M. Middlebrooks.
Leonard Feuer, the West Palm Beach attorney, is representing Dolce.
After various twists that preceded Dolce’s arrest, the Abate case is continuing. In February Abate’s attorney filed a motion to dismiss the case, and to compel the defense to reveal the name of the complainant.
Bobby says
Another upstanding Florida attorney,NOT. What is wrong with these men???????????????? Instead of the Governor going after WOKE or DISNEY, why doesn’t he start addressing men accused of child porn?
Have to laugh says
If this wasn’t so disgusting it would be funny.
Concerned Citizen says
How would it be remotely funny?
Please enlighten me as I don’t share your sense of humor.
This guy is victimizing children. He’s also enabling the ones that film and publish this material. I don’t want to hear any crying about mental health issues. This dude is a lawyer. He knows the law. And knows exactly what he was doing.
That being said. The feds need to max out any sentence. And the consolation for us will be the the fact that Feds require 80% or more of time served.
I was in law enforcement a long time. Crimes like this make me sick to my stomach. Abusers of children and women are the lowest of the low. The sad part is he will probably be placed in PC and get more rights than his victim did.
MHF says
Sounds about white.
c says
Why?
Because the Good Ole Boys network is alive and well. Never call an associate on unwarranted behavior, lest you be called next.
Atwp says
What does watching porn does for a person? Watching children being abused in child porn isn’t good. Watching porn isn’t good. A waste of valuable time.
Joseph Barand says
Well this was refreshing because he was not a Catholic Priest.
Laurel says
“Sounds about white” sounds about stupid.
Laurel says
Actually, I believe society pushes in this direction more than we care to acknowledge. Have you ever seen a strip joint that advertises “Women, Women, Women?” No, they advertise “Girls, Girls, Girls.” Why do you figure? Creepy as hell.
Now, you gotta know if you prefer kids over adults (Geeeez), so my question has always been that if you feel this way, why not stop and say to yourself “What the hell?” Just stop. Get help. These kids lives are totally ruined, and the pedophile ruins it. So sick. Leave the kids alone.
Right to lifers, I still hear crickets.