Natalia Dalton is the latest guest on the podcast.
Natalia has a long, drawn out and corrupt child custody case in Virginia.
I previously covered her story in 2018.
Natalia Dalton in the City of Alexandria, Virginia spent the first six years of her sons life as his primary caregiver.
She and her ex-boyfriend Julio LaCayo had a son in 2008.
They were never married, and custody was always arranged in some part through court orders the entirety of her son’s life.
For the first six years of his life, Natalia had physical custody, her son thrived in school under her care.
“There was one court hearing during that time over the sons passport.” Dalton noted.
In 2013, that all changed.
Indeed, the custody arrangement appeared to be working fine until Dalton was attacked a few times by LaCayo, her son came back from visits aggressive and LaCayo, Dalton alleged, was no longer cooperative.
In September 2013, Dalton went back to court to resolve those issues.
Dalton told me she provided photos (which she also provided me), witness accounts, police reports, and medical reports to all back up that her ex was violent.
In one police report from 2013, LaCayo allegedly pushed her into an open door frame before slamming the door in her face during an argument. She had bruises on her back and filed a police report immediately after the incident.
I continued.
Then, in the Spring 2014, Dalton presented LaCayo with an opportunity.
Attempting to find more affordable housing, Dalton looked into moving into a new county and with it a new school district.
When LaCayo and his attorneys got wind of this, they filed a motion, arguing that this is a “change in circumstances.”
In most custody arrangements, once custody is determined it is set unless there is a “change in circumstances”, a legal term which is then interpreted by the presiding judge.
The presiding judge in this case was Judge Uley Norris Damiani a JDR judge.
On April 3, 2014, Dalton said Judge Damiani scheduled a status conference. Dalton’s attorney at the time, Megan Wood, told her she did not even need to attend.
But at this status conference, LaCayo’s attorney, Donnie Colton, presented an emergency motion to switch custody, arguing that Dalton had been seen wandering her son’s school grounds barefoot.
This report was made by a single school administrator; Dalton denies it and it’s not clear what it shows, even if true.
But on the strength of this allegation, custody was switched at this status conference with LaCayo now receiving physical custody.
Emails to Colton and LaCayo were left unreturned.
Megan Wood headed her own law firm at the time, but then took a job with the State Department,
according to her LinkedIn profile, but her professional credentials end in August 2017 on LinkedIn, and she couldn’t be located.Dalton than appealed the decision to the Alexandria Circuit Court of the 18th Circuit in Virginia, according to her Ballotpedia page where Judge Lisa bondareff Kemler was assigned.
Judge Lisa Bondareff Kemler did not respond to an email for comment.
Following the custody switch, Natalia has had more and more trouble seeing her son.
Earlier in March, I released this recording of her and a supervised visitation center manager. In it, the manager heartlessly cancels a visit over a misunderstanding and refused to work to fix it.
In fact, though she started out the process with primary physical custody, Natalia said she has been reduced to supervised visits, which are usually cancelled.
She said she’s seen her son once in the last year.
Michael Volpe Investigates Podcast The Impromptu: Episode 37 an Interview with Natalia Dalton