LOS ANGELES – An actor who is the founder and president of an animal welfare organization based near the Antelope Valley has been arrested on a federal criminal complaint charging him with the attempted kidnapping of a former employee who won a $6.7 million wrongful-termination judgment against him, the Justice Department announced today.
Leo Grillo, 77, of Acton, is charged with attempted kidnapping, a felony that carries a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison.
He was arrested Tuesday and is scheduled to make his initial appearance this afternoon in United States District Court in downtown Los Angeles.
According to an affidavit filed with the complaint, Grillo leads an Acton-based animal welfare organization called Dedication and Everlasting Love to Animals (DELTA) Rescue, which bills itself as the largest no-kill animal sanctuary of its kind in the world. Grillo also is a film actor and producer.
In November 2024, the victim won a judgment of $6,680,950 in Los Angeles Superior Court after a jury found DELTA Rescue liable for wrongful termination and other causes of legal action. DELTA Rescue – which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in May 2025 – is appealing that judgment.
In December 2025, Grillo met in Burbank with an individual 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 the individual to use his contacts in Mexico to find out more about the plaintiff who successfully sued him.
During January 2026, Grillo asked the individual – whom Grillo didn’t know was then cooperating with law enforcement – for another in-person 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. While in confinement, she 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 child and she to be flown out of an airfield in Lancaster.
In February 2026, Grillo mailed the individual a check from “Animals Are People Too” for $20,000 and confirmed that he wanted to get the victim on an airplane to Mexico, where her husband and she would be held hostage. The memo on the check stated, “Production,” consistent with Grillo’s coded terminology for the kidnapping plot.
On March 3, the individual met again with Grillo in Burbank, told him, “They’ve got ‘em,” and showed Grillo a fake photograph on the individual’s cellphone showing what appeared to be the victim and a man tied up with zip ties and with the victim having duct tape over her mouth.
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 worried aloud that their sons could contact law enforcement. Grillo eventually wrote a $10,000 check to the individual to further advance the kidnapping plot.
A complaint contains allegations that a defendant has committed a crime. Every defendant is presumed to be innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in court.
The FBI and the United States Postal Inspection Service are investigating this matter.
Assistant United States Attorneys Kevin J. Butler of the Major Crimes Section and Kevin B. Reidy and Haoxiaohan H. Cai of the Major Frauds Section are prosecuting this case.
