A former Lake Forest Academy therapist, who prosecutors said was in love with a male juvenile student and hosted him for sleepovers, has pleaded guilty to violating a court no-contact order with him.
Nirali Dalia, 45, of Lake Forest, was charged with one count of violation of a stalking no-contact order, a Class A misdemeanor.
Lake County Assistant State’s Attorney Colleen McConnell said Dalia was a counselor employed at Lake Forest Academy in Lake Forest.
Lake Forest Academy is a co-educational college preparatory school for boarding and day students in grades 9-12. It is ranked among the top boarding schools in the United States.
McConnell said the victim is a student at the school who was previously seeing Dalia as his school counselor.
The boy’s parents were on their child’s cell phone at the end of December when they located troubling messages from Dalia sent to the victim, McConnell said.
The victim’s parents sought an emergency stalking no-contact order to prohibit Dalia from having any contact with the child, including electronically, through social media and through third parties.
According to the petition for order of protection, the boy’s mother said the text messages involved Dalia admitting she hit her son while apologizing to him.
The petition said Dalia also instructed the boy not to take his prescribed medications, at which time he responded, “I have to,” and she responded, “No, you don’t have to take both. Please let me help you make sure you take care of yourself,” the boy’s mother said in the petition.
The petition said Dalia sent text messages to the child trying to convince the boy to come live with her. “She is consistently forcing him to have hope that one day he will be able to live with her,” his mother said.
Dalia is the mother of the boy’s girlfriend and the boy stayed over at their house, the petition said, adding that text messages from 2:10 a.m. that night showed the boy telling Dalia he could not sleep.
Dalia reportedly responded by asking the child if he had any clothes on and invited him to hang out with her. She came up to his room where he was sleeping four minutes later, the petition said.
In a text message sent on Christmas Day, Dalia sent the boy a meme on why hugs help and told him that was why she needs hugs from him, the petition said. She also reportedly said she “missed” hugs from him and that it had been three days. “I just miss you.”
The petition said that Dalia told the boy that it scares her when he and his girlfriend fight because the only reason he was around her as much as he was was due to him dating the woman’s daughter.
“I don’t want to lose that. I’m already losing being able to see you and check in on you everyday by not being at LFA,” Dalia said while referencing being “attached” to him, according to the petition.
Text messages from earlier in December when Dalia was still employed at Lake Forest Academy referenced her sneaking the boy off campus without his parents’ permission while telling him to lie about it, the petition said.
Also while she was employed at the school, Dalia sent text messages to the child repeatedly telling him, “I love you unconditionally,” according to the boy’s mother.
The petition said Dalia asked the boy on December 17 if he was only allowed to sleepover one night, “can it be Friday night? If you can 2 nights, then Thursday and Friday night. But you know that I want you to sleep here as many nights as possible (ideally the whole break, but I know that wont happen bc you need to spend time with your family?!”
A Lake County judge granted the emergency no-contact request on December 29 and the order was served on Dalia on December 31.
The emergency no-contact order prohibiting Dalia from having any contact with the victim was extended until February 13 during a court hearing on January 15 where Dalia and her attorney, as well as the parents of the victim, were present.
Just hours later, the boy was being driven home from practice by his au pair when she heard the boy start a video call with someone she initially assumed was a friend, McConnell said.
The au pair was able to see who the victim was talking to since he was sitting in the front passenger seat and video chatting on his iPad.
McConnell said the au pair had met Dalia on prior occasions and recognized Dalia as the person the victim was video chatting.
The au pair began to audio record parts of the conversation as she was aware Dalia was not supposed to be speaking with the boy.
She dropped off the child at home and promptly alerted the boy’s mother, who contacted the police.
McConnell said the au pair could only hear the boy’s portion of the conversations but some of the more concerning statements she heard was him saying, “I had to create another account so I can talk to you” and “they only know about the drinking and that you hit me, but I told them you were restraining me from harming myself.”
He also said, “I’m pulling up so we’ll talk soon, probably later. I love you.”
McConnell said the victim was initially hesitant but eventually admitted to his parents that he spoke with Dalia that day.
“This Defendant has clearly abused her position of trust and confidence that she has as a school counselor over a minor child who was seeking her out for her professional expertise. The fact that this violation occurred on the same day this Defendant was in Court over the Stalking no Contact Order is also incredibly concerning and incredibly indicative of this Defendant’s unwillingness to abide by Court orders,” McConnell said.
An arrest warrant was obtained by the Lake Forest Police Department for Dalia and she was taken into custody and appeared for a detention hearing last week.
Lake County Judge Michael Nerheim granted the petition to detain Dalia pending trial after prosecutors successfully argued she poses a danger to the victim, is unwilling to abide by court orders and there are no conditions of release that could mitigate it.
Lake County Assistant State’s Attorney Emily Shanley-Roberts said there is an ongoing investigation into Dalia for potential additional charges regarding the instances that led to the granting of the no-contact order.
“This defendant has clearly abused her position of trust and confidence that she has as a therapist provided by the school over this minor child,” Shanley-Roberts said, noting that the violation of the court order happened on the same day she was in court and advised by a judge to have no contact.
Lake Forest Academy Head of School Tom Johnson told Lake and McHenry County Scanner that the school has informed its community regarding the arrest of Dalia.
Dalia began working for the school as a school therapist in July 2021.
Johnson said Dalia’s employment at Lake Forest Academy ended on December 18 and the no-contact order was issued 11 days later on December 29.
“The safety, health, and well-being of our school community are paramount and our school continues to cooperate fully with the local authorities and support our affected community members,” Johnson said.
Attorney Robert Deters, who is representing Dalia, said his client “vigorously contests” the allegations.
Deters said Dalia initially saw the boy as his therapist at the school but withdrew from seeing him due to the relationship involving him and Dalia’s daughter.
The attorney explained that the text messages involving Dalia telling the boy not to take his medication was done in concert with the child’s mother because the medication was causing the child’s mental health to worsen.
Deters also said that Dalia had permission from the boy’s mother to take him off campus from the school on occasions.
Court records show Dalia has since entered a plea of guilty to the charge against her during a pre-trial hearing.
There was no pre-negotiated sentence and she is set to be sentenced on March 11. Dalia was released from the Lake County Jail ahead of the sentencing.