Founder of SoCal animal rescue accused of attempting to kidnap former employee

LOS ANGELES - The founder of an animal welfare organization in the Antelope Valley is accused of attempting to kidnap a former employee who won a nearly $6.7 million judgment against him, officials announced Wednesday.

What we know:

Leo Grillo, 77, of Acton, was arrested Tuesday and charged with attempted kidnapping, a felony carrying a possible sentence of up to 20 years behind bars if convicted.

The charge stems from November 2024 after a jury found DELTA Rescue, the shelter Grillo runs, liable for wrongful firing and other allegations. DELTA Rescue, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in May 2025, is appealing the judgment. The former employee won nearly $6.7 million from the case. 

In December 2025, Grillo met an unidentified person to discuss the wrongful-termination litigation as well as a documentary targeting his liability insurance company that he believed had treated him poorly. He then asked that person to use his contacts in Mexico to find out more about the plaintiff who successfully sued him, prosecutors contend.

The following month, Grillo asked the person, who was secretly cooperating with law enforcement, for another meeting and began talking in code about a "documentary" in which the woman who defeated him at trial would be kidnapped along with a family member and for them to be held hostage in Mexico, the U.S. Attorney's Office alleges.

As Grillo allegedly described it, while in confinement, the woman would be forced to cooperate with Grillo to settle the litigation. He also said he would be willing to pay $100,000 to make that happen and that he wanted her and her child to be flown out of an airfield in Lancaster, prosecutors said.

Last month, Grillo mailed the individual a check from "Animals Are People Too" for $20,000 and confirmed that he wanted to get the ex-employee on an airplane to Mexico, where she and her husband would be held hostage, prosecutors allege. 

The memo on the check used coded terminology for the kidnapping plot, court papers allege.

On Tuesday, the cooperating witness met again with Grillo in Burbank, telling him, "They've got 'em," and showed Grillo a fake photograph showing what appeared to be the woman and a man zip-tied with the victim having duct tape over her mouth, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Prosecutors say the individual then told Grillo that the plan had hit a snag and the victim and her husband had not yet left Lancaster and would need to be taken to a different place in Mexico. Grillo allegedly worried aloud that their sons could contact law enforcement, but he eventually wrote a $10,000 check to the cooperating witness to further the plot, federal prosecutors contend.

Who is Leo Grillo?

Grillo runs Dedication and Everlasting Love to Animals (DELTA) Rescue, which bills itself as the largest no-kill animal sanctuary of its kind in the world. 

The animal welfare activist describes himself as a former film actor and producer.