A former Lake Forest Academy therapist, who prosecutors said was in love with a male juvenile student and hosted him for sleepovers, is now charged with letting him drink alcohol at her home while she still worked at the school.
Nirali D. Dalia, 46, of Lake Forest, was charged with child endangerment, contributing to the delinquency of a minor and social hosting, all of which are Class A misdemeanors.
Dalia allegedly provided alcohol to the boy, who was at her Lake Forest home as a guest of her child, and allowed him to drink it there on October 31, according to an arrest warrant.
Dalia still worked at Lake Forest Academy at the time, according to Lake Forest Academy Head of School Tom Johnson, who previously told Lake and McHenry County Scanner her employment with the school ended on December 18.
Lake Forest Deputy Police Chief Kevin Zelk said a warrant for Dalia’s arrest was issued Tuesday after the department’s Criminal Investigation Division concluded its investigation.
Dalia turned herself in Wednesday after her attorney was notified of the warrant, Zelk said.
Lake County Judge Patricia Cornell released Dalia with pre-trial conditions following a First Appearance Court hearing on Wednesday morning because the charges are non-detainable under the Illinois SAFE-T Act, according to court records.
The new charges involve the same boy at the center of Dalia’s earlier case, in which she pleaded guilty in January to violating a stalking no-contact order that barred her from contacting him. She is currently on probation in that case.
The boy’s parents sought the order in December after finding text messages in which Dalia apologized for hitting him, told him not to take his prescribed medication, tried to convince him to come live with her and repeatedly told him “I love you unconditionally,” according to the petition.
Dalia, who is the mother of the boy’s girlfriend, also asked the boy if he had any clothes on at 2:10 a.m. while he was staying overnight at her home in December and came up to his room four minutes later, the petition said.
The boy slept over at Dalia’s home four times with his mother’s permission, the mother testified at Dalia’s sentencing hearing in April.
The boy’s au pair recognized Dalia on a video call with him on January 15, just hours after a hearing where the order was extended, Lake County Assistant State’s Attorney Colleen McConnell said at the time.
The au pair heard the boy say, “They only know about the drinking and that you hit me,” McConnell said.
Lake County Assistant State’s Attorney Emily Shanley-Roberts previously said in January that Dalia was under investigation for potential additional charges.
“The investigation into this defendant started in January 2026,” Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office Director of Communications Sara Avalos told Lake and McHenry County Scanner this week.
The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation indefinitely suspended Dalia’s clinical professional counselor license for a minimum of one year on January 30 after she sent inappropriate text messages to a minor client that crossed professional boundaries, according to state licensing records.
Lake County Judge James Newman sentenced Dalia on April 1 to 18 months of probation, with 180 days in the Lake County Jail stayed pending her compliance, and ordered her to undergo a mental health evaluation and boundary counseling.
The boy’s mother told the judge at the sentencing hearing that she found more than 2,400 pages of text messages between her son and Dalia.
“Over just two months’ time the defendant created an inappropriate and deeply harmful relationship with my son,” the boy’s mother said.
The mother said Dalia “provided him alcohol at 14 years old” at Dalia’s home.
The mother testified that text messages from October 31 showed her son saying “Pregame” and asking whether Dalia’s daughter would be drinking, with Dalia telling him the girl’s father “cannot know about this.”
Attorney Robert Deters, who represents Dalia, said while cross-examining the mother that none of those messages implied Dalia provided any alcohol.
Dalia apologized to the court and said she took the January 15 call because she “reacted emotionally to my daughter panicking and begging me to talk to her friend.”
Newman said he was “frankly taken aback” by the defense’s argument that Dalia’s daughter facilitated the violation.
“This defendant is the adult in the situation,” Newman said.
“You violated your clear rules of ethics with your relationship with this child, the grounds, the basis for that emergency order of protection were well-taken,” Newman said.
“I’m not here sentencing an individual for grooming, for luring, for criminal sexual abuse of a child, for aggravated battery to a child, for contributing to the delinquency of a child,” Newman said.
Newman said the evidence presented at the hearing left it unclear “who, if any, provided alcohol, where was alcohol being given.”
Newman barred Dalia from any contact with the boy and allowed her on Lake Forest Academy property only for her daughters’ activities that he is not part of.
“And I don’t want you walking the floors of Lake Forest like you own the place because you don’t and you don’t work there anymore,” Newman said.
Newman also barred Dalia from unsupervised contact with children other than her own.
Newman later ordered that Dalia’s restrictions around minors follow recommendations from her counselor, according to a court order.
Deters filed a motion on September 21 asking Newman to adopt updated recommendations from the counselor that would allow Dalia to be alone with her children’s friends at her home and to drive them, with their parents’ consent.
“To protect the privacy of the minors involved, no additional details will be released at this time,” Zelk said Friday regarding the new case.
Dalia is scheduled to appear in court again on October 15 for an arraignment hearing on the new charges.