Federal prosecutors have charged an Acton actor and animal-welfare advocate with the attempted kidnapping of a former employee who previously won a $6.7 million wrongful-termination judgment against him, according to a federal complaint filed this week.
The Department of Justice operation targeting 77-year-old Leo Grillo resulted in his being taken into custody this week, after an undercover agent received a $10,000 check to further the six-figure abduction plot, according to a DOJ news release issued Wednesday.
“On March 3, the (undercover) individual met again with Grillo in Burbank, told him, ‘They’ve got ‘em,’” referring to the targets, a mother who had been awarded a nearly $7 million judgment against Grillo for wrongful termination, in the DOJ statement.
Grillo was shown 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,” according to a Monday news release.
“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,” according to the news release.
Grillo was a child actor in the 1970s, according to IMDB.com, which also notes he was “lead actor, opposite Katherine Heigl and Tom Sizemore, in the 2006 independent film ‘Zyzzyx Rd.’” He also co-wrote and starred in “Magic,” with Christopher Lloyd and Robert Davi in 2009.
However, he’s most well-known for starting his animal nonprofit, the Dedication and Everlasting Love to Animals, or DELTA Rescue, in Acton. Its website says it has 1,500 animals on 150 acres, as well as two veterinary facilities, in “the largest no-kill, care-for-life sanctuary in the United States.”
In November 2024, the victim in the alleged attempted-kidnapping plot won a judgment of $6,680,950 in Los Angeles County Superior Court, after DELTA Rescue was found liable for her wrongful termination, according to the DOJ.
“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,” according to the news release. “The memo on the check stated, ‘Production,’ consistent with Grillo’s coded terminology for the kidnapping plot.”
The FBI and the United States Postal Inspection Service are investigating this matter.
