Illegal Alien Wins $6.7 Million Judgment Against No-Kill Animal Sanctuary – Uses Fake Social Security Number

Adriana Duarte Valentines’ story may be a modern American rags-to-riches tale. Yet she hasn’t received her money, and she is not an American.

The 45-year-old illegal alien utilized the U.S. legal system to secure a victory over D.E.L.T.A. Rescue, a no-kill animal sanctuary in Los Angeles County, California. The jury’s verdict threatens the well-being of up to 1,500 rescue dogs, cats, and horses.

Duarte was employed as a cat caretaker at D.E.L.T.A. Rescue from mid-2017 to early 2020, earning $15 per hour. Witnesses reported seeing her selling dog and cat food at swap meets. Allegedly, she also distributed stolen animal supplies to illegal networks linked to Mexican street gangs involved in dog fighting and breeding large dogs like the Belgian Malinois for drug dealers.

Deception and Termination

Duarte crossed the U.S.-Mexico border without official permission in 2002. She has remained an illegal alien for 22 years, having never paid taxes or possessed a social security number. She secured her position at D.E.L.T.A Rescue in June 2017 by falsely claiming U.S. citizenship and providing a fake Social Security number. She told D.E.L.T.A that she was previously employed as an agricultural worker who picked lettuce in southern California.

Duarte abruptly resigned from D.E.L.T.A on January 31, 2020.

Shortly after, D.E.L.T.A discovered significant quantities of missing supplies. Days later, Duarte emailed requesting reinstatement, citing an unannounced pregnancy and expressing intent to return to work the day following her childbirth.

Suspicious of her sudden departure and rapid return, coupled with evidence of theft, D.E.L.T.A founder Leo Grillo declined her request to return.

Legal Battle

Fighting for Her Rights?

Duarte contested her termination in Los Angeles Superior Court, alleging pregnancy discrimination, unpaid overtime, and denial of state-mandated breaks.

During pretrial, witnesses revealed Duarte had been taking extended breaks with D.E.L.T.A. Rescue overnight caretaker Jorge Avalos in his trailer.

Duarte had indeed been pregnant, but it was Avalos, not her husband, who was rumored to be the father. Avalos also abruptly quit and fled the Los Angeles area after Duarte’s husband, Raul Lopez, attempted to run him over with his car.

Duarte reportedly emerged with a fresh scar, which sources close to the couple say was comparatively light punishment by her cucked husband Lopez, known for more savage beatings of his unfaithful wife.

Friends say the couple reconciled after the jury delivered the $6.7 million verdict in November.

Judge’s Decision Pending

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Kristin S. Escalante must approve the verdict and has the authority to reduce or overturn the award. If the verdict is upheld, Leo Grillo, the founder of D.E.L.T.A. Rescue, plans to appeal to a higher court.

Impact on Animal Sanctuary

D.E.L.T.A. Rescue is a nonprofit organization and the oldest, largest no-kill animal sanctuary in the United States, dedicated to providing lifelong care for animals. It operates solely on donations and does not receive government funding. The organization has received a “GOLD” rating from GuideStar/Foundation Center, which reflects its high levels of transparency and accountability.

The sanctuary however lacks the resources to pay the $6.7 million judgment. Its insurance policy with NAIC covers up to $1 million, leaving D.E.L.T.A. responsible for the remaining amount. This enormous financial burden could jeopardize the care of rescue animals under its protection.

Founder Vows to Fight

Leo Grillo, 75, established D.E.L.T.A. Rescue in 1979. The no-kill animal sanctuary spans 115 acres atop a California mountain and houses up to 1,500 dogs, cats, and horses. These animals were previously abandoned, abused, or left to perish in the desert or the Angeles National Forest—areas frequently used by owners to dump their unwanted pets.

Over 75% of the rescue dogs at D.E.L.T.A. are Pitbulls or Pitbull mixes. Due to their traumatic histories, most animals are unsuitable for adoption. They arrived at the sanctuary bruised, beaten, and starving before being rescued by D.E.L.T.A.

If Duarte prevails in the legal proceedings, the sanctuary will face severe financial challenges.

However, Grillo, who has managed the sanctuary for 45 years, is determined to fight.

He stated, “I don’t know what I’m going to do, but I’m not going to lose my sanctuary. I promised each animal that they would be safe and loved for the rest of their lives. I will fight this injustice by rallying patriots to our cause. Illegal aliens cannot have standing to sue Americans in our courts, which our taxes pay for!”

Suppression of Evidence

In the wrongful termination lawsuit against D.E.L.T.A. Rescue, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Kristin S. Escalante ruled the jury should not be informed of D.E.L.T.A’s status as a nonprofit organization dependent on donations, allowing it to be referred to only as an animal rescue.

Judge Escalante ruled the defense was prohibited from informing the jury about Duarte’s illegal alien status and her use of a false Social Security number to secure employment.

Evidence concerning Duarte’s alleged sexual activities with coworkers during work hours and her purported neglect of duties while absent was excluded. The judge deemed such information prejudicial and not relevant to the issue of wrongful termination due to pregnancy discrimination.

Judge Escalante also ruled the jury could not hear that Duarte’s claimed overtime hours were spent in the trailer of her lover and baby daddy, Jorge Avalos, or with other lovers at furtive locations within the sanctuary.

The evidence that Duarte neglected her responsibilities in caring for cats to be with her potpourri of lovers, as well as suspected accomplices in her theft of their food, was excluded as prejudicial.

The paternity of the child, the only one of Duarte’s four children without her husband’s last name, was excluded as evidence due to potential prejudice.

Alleged Failure to Accommodate Pregnancy

During the trial, the jury was presented with claims that D.E.L.T.A. Rescue failed to accommodate Duarte’s pregnancy. However, evidence indicates Duarte did not disclose her pregnancy until after her resignation.

Duarte’s email to Leo Grillo, dated February 2, 2020, sent just one day before she gave birth, stated:

“Mr. Leo, excuse me for not doing things right, I am having my baby, I said nothing because I did not want to disturb him and I felt able to continue working… I just want to go back and keep working the same way, sir. I don’t want days off…”

This communication indicates D.E.L.T.A. was unaware of her pregnancy, raising the question of how an organization could provide accommodations for a condition they knew nothing about.

Implications

The timing of Duarte’s disclosure should have been a crucial factor in evaluating whether D.E.L.T.A. Rescue failed to accommodate her pregnancy. However, the evidence that the judge chose to exclude, as well as evidence allowed, rendered this key issue irrelevant and served to make the case little more than a show trial.

Exclusion of Theft Evidence

During the trial, the jury was not presented with evidence showing Adriana Duarte had allegedly stolen over $350,000 worth of animal food and supplies during her 30-month employment at D.E.L.T.A. This evidence included detailed records, photographs, and eyewitness accounts.

Selective Presentation of Deposition Footage

During the trial, Judge Kristin S. Escalante in a shocking departure from fundamental fairness permitted Adriana Duarte’s attorney, Jacob A. Nalbandyan, to present the jury with selectively edited video excerpts from Leo Grillo’s 2022 deposition.
The judge allowed these clips purportedly to show Grillo’s state of mind at the time of Duarte’s firing, though the deposition was filmed two years after her firing.

In the clips, which represent a few minutes of an hours-long deposition, judiciously spliced, Grillo appears visibly upset, and refers to Duarte as a “bimbo” and a “lettuce picker,” the latter in reference to her alleged prior occupation. He also commented that inquiring about pregnancy could be offensive when a woman is “obese.”

A Cumulative Video

These edited clips were shown to the jury over 50 times, including 28 times on the day Grillo testified.

The jury consisted of eight Mexican Americans, one Asian, one black, and two white individuals, one of whom was obese. Every day the jury saw the videos but without context,. Grillo was reacting to a woman who had lied to him and robbed him.

She could have taken the food from animals, neglected their health to have sex in the hayloft, and sold their blankets that kept them warm. None of that mattered because Leo Grillo was a white-privileged man who called a woman obese because he did not realize that she was pregnant, and a bimbo because he lacked the more accurate term for her “ass clown” which she was, and a lettuce picker not because she was Hispanic but because that’s what she told him she was.

The trial was turned upside down by an angry prejudiced judge playing a video again and again to make them hate Leo Grillo.

And not understand that the defendant was an American hero.

One of the true pioneers of modern animal welfare. As the founder of the first and largest no-kill, care-for-life animal sanctuary in the world, Grillo has authored influential works on humane animal care and has been instrumental in rescuing untold numbers or animals. Some estimate 100,000 animals throughout his career. Others say his direct influence on other animal activists make the number he directly or indirectly saved at over one million.

White Man Equals Red or is it Green?

But Judge Escalante could only see white. He was a white man. And she manipulated the jury to hate Grillo and feel sympathy for the alleged thief, Duarte. The judge narrowly tailored what evidence the jury could hear, so that the liar was depicted as a dutiful wife and mother who depended on her job (she loved cats so much) and felt devastating emotional distress because Grillo would not let her return to work.

She was “embarrassed, ashamed, emotionally broken, and in financial desperation.”

Duarte based her non-economic damages (emotional suffering) on a single note from a social worker, who stated Duarte developed psychiatric symptoms after giving birth, attributing them to the loss of her job.

The social worker did not calculate Daurte’s job loss represented more than $15 per hour in lost earnings, but the additional amount she had been allegedly stealing, which may have contributed to “financial desperation.”

The social worker also failed to consider that Duarte’s embarrassment, shame, and emotional distress stemmed from an unexpected pregnancy with a lover at work, which displeased her husband.

In November, the jury found Duarte had incurred economic losses of $16,002 due to unpaid overtime wages and $180,950 in economic damages. Her emotional distress was the most significant aspect of the trial.

The jury was moved by Duarte’s daily attendance, where she cried each day. Duarte also brought her young daughter to court, crying over the child. The jury awarded her $5,500,000 for her distress and another $1,000,000 in punitive damages, bringing the total to $6.7 million, plus attorney’s fees.

On or before February 10, Judge Escalante will rule on the post-trial motions for a new trial. The judge also has the authority to reduce or vacate the monetary award if she believes the jury went overboard, perhaps partly because of what the judge herself premitted and excluded from the trial.

The Future…?

In the meantime, up to 1500 animals rescued once from almost certain death face uncertain times. Except Grillo isn’t going to back down. The same man who saved them will not back down. For 45 years, he has saved animals and led the movement to care for them for life.

He is not about to stop now.

I don’t know about you, but it doesn’t seem fair that someone such as Adriana Duarte Valentines should rob the dogs, cats and horses of their rightful home, under the care and protection of Leo Grillo at D.E.L.T.A Rescue. But there is a lot more to be told about the underbelly of the illegal network that Duarte is allegedly involved in and its reach into the various aspects of government.

To be continued…

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Frank Parlato

Frank Parlato is an investigative journalist, media strategist, publisher, and legal consultant.

Frank Parlato

Frank Parlato is an investigative journalist, media strategist, publisher, and legal consultant.

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