A former employee at a well-known Bartow criminal lawyer’s office has been charged with multiple felonies after investigators said client payments were diverted, records were altered and funds were concealed for years. Natalie Escamilla, 39, now faces charges that include grand theft, scheme to defraud, forgery and uttering a forged instrument.
The charges landed after attorney Gil Colon discovered his firm’s trust account was overdrawn and asked for a review of office records, setting off a forensic look at the way client money moved through the practice. That review, investigators said, exposed thousands of dollars in payments that had been documented in the office but never reached the firm’s trust account, along with dozens of other transactions that could not be matched to deposits.
Investigators alleged Escamilla handled a significant share of client payments and collected cash and electronic transfers meant for the law office, then failed to deposit some of the money into the trust account. They also alleged some funds were routed into her personal accounts. In all, Escamilla was charged with grand theft between $20,000 and $100,000, scheme to defraud greater than $20,000, grand theft between $750 and $5,000, 15 counts of forgery and 15 counts of uttering a forged instrument.
Court records show investigators examined bank records, Zelle records, Cash App records, office accounting documents, client statements, texts, emails and information recovered from an office-issued cellphone. They also carried out a controlled phone call as part of the case. The inquiry, they said, found discrepancies between payments logged by the office and deposits received by the firm, including more than $16,000 in Zelle payments that allegedly went into Escamilla’s personal accounts instead of the trust account.
The friction in the case was not just missing money. Investigators said some receipts and transactions could not be verified, while others were later disputed by clients. They alleged that money-order receipts were created even though family members said the money orders were never purchased or submitted to the law firm. In another instance, they said payments were still being collected from a client whose criminal case had already been dismissed.
The affidavit says the conduct began in 2022 and continued through 2025, touching numerous client transactions and a range of payment methods that included Zelle, Cash App, cash, money orders and credit cards. Investigators said dozens of additional transactions appeared in office records but could not be tied to deposits in the firm’s accounts. Escamilla has a court-appointed attorney and has been issued bond. What remains unresolved is the full amount of client money investigators believe never made it into the firm’s accounts.
