A onetime actor and founder of a no-kill animal sanctuary near the Antelope Valley pleaded not guilty Monday to planning to kidnap a former employee over a lost lawsuit.
Leo Grillo, 77, of Acton, entered his plea in downtown Los Angeles to a federal charge of attempted kidnapping, a felony carrying a possible sentence of up to 20 years behind bars if convicted.
According to court papers, Grillo leads 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.
The charge stems from November 2024, when the former employee won a nearly $6.7 million judgment in Los Angeles Superior Court after a jury found DELTA Rescue liable for wrongful firing and other allegations. DELTA Rescue — which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in May 2025 — is appealing the decision.
Court documents allege that in December 2025, Grillo met in Burbank with an individual to discuss the wrongful-termination litigation and a planned documentary targeting his liability insurance company. He allegedly asked the person to use contacts in Mexico to gather information about the former employee who sued him.
The following month, Grillo asked the person — who was secretly cooperating with law enforcement — for a second meeting, speaking in coded language about a “documentary” in which the woman who defeated him at trial would be kidnapped along with a family member and held hostage in Mexico, the U.S. Attorney’s Office alleges.
Authorities said Grillo suggested he would pay $100,000 to carry out the kidnapping and indicated he wanted the woman and her child to be flown from an airfield in Lancaster.
In February, Grillo sent the cooperator a check for $20,000 to put the alleged plot in motion, according to papers filed in Los Angeles federal court.
On March 3, 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 said the witness 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 the “kidnapped” couple’s sons could contact law enforcement, but he eventually wrote a $10,000 check to the cooperating witness to further the plan, federal prosecutors contend.