By Frank Parlato
An Example Worth Making
President Trump says it’s time to deport illegal immigrants who abuse the system. We have a candidate.
Her name is Adriana Duarte Valentines, and she’s been living in Lancaster, California, for over 20 years—off the books, off the radar, and off the moral grid.
In this multi-part investigation, we will expose the full scope of Duarte’s betrayal—not just of the law but of the dogs, cats, and horses who depended on her. If there’s one case that makes the argument for deportation, it’s this one.
The American Dream
Raul Lopez and Adriana Duarte Valentines lived in Lancaster, California, which was comparatively safe. The husband, Lopez, earned $350 a week off the books. Duarte, when she worked, worked off the books.
They lived in a world that wasn’t theirs officially. A roof. Running water. They paid no taxes, but their children went to school with the rest, crossed the same bridges, and drank the same water. They took what they needed.
Application and False Background
In June 2017, Adriana Duarte applied for a position at DELTA Rescue, an animal sanctuary on a hilltop in Acton. DELTA employed a mostly Hispanic labor force.
Duarte requested to be an independent contractor. She told the manager she had worked picking lettuce in Oxnard. That explained why she had no work history. It was not true.
She signed an Independent Contractor Agreement and an IRS Form W 9 – Request for Taxpayer Identification Number and Certification. Since she had no Social Security number, she made one up.
Duarte contracted to work six days a week, ten hours a day, taking Saturdays off. DELTA paid her $15 an hour.
Duarte handled cats, feeding, cleaning, and sanitation. She had access to supplies. There were 1500 animals on site, and some supplies went offsite to help other no-kill animal sanctuaries.
An increase in supply orders for gloves, bleach, and paper towels seemed innocuous. Duarte was trusted.
Inventory Surge
In mid-2018, Mighty Dog canned food purchases exceeded $31,000 in two months. By late 2018, a single order included 400 bags of cat litter. The paper towels were going fast. The gloves disappeared from the box.
Litter, bleach, Mighty Dog. Fancy Feast filled the bed of her truck.
She worked hard. Cats got fed. Litter got poured and cleaned. Trucks got loaded. She said she was moving stuff from one cat house to another. Even dog food. She said it was for the job when she used bleach, food, and bags.
Swap Meet Sales Operation
In backlots of greater Los Angeles, informal markets spring up in the alleyways. Each weekend, goods are sold—tools, electronics, secondhand clothing, prepaid phones. For a time, Saturdays – her day off – came, and one vendor, a Mexican woman, who could lift a fifty-pound bag like it was feathers, set up her table neatly with cans and sacks of pet food, and pet supplies. Half price.
The clientele spoke Spanish. They paid in cash. No receipts. The provenance of the merchandise was understood without explanation. Duarte made more money on Saturdays than working at DELTA the other six days, and she made four times what her husband made.
To supplement her income – even when there was little to do – for the cats were cleaned and fed, Duarte billed DELTA for hours extending beyond closing at 4:30 p.m.
Duarte told her husband she had “extra duties” requiring her presence into the evening. She spent some of that time taking DELTA’s food off the property – a task for which she needed the not-too-careful scrutiny of the security man. To reward him, from time to time, she provided him with amorous services – but largely unknown to her sister – who also provided him with similar services.
Affairs and Miscarriage
She also found amour with a married employee. She got pregnant, but perhaps from lifting heavy things or perhaps from working near the cats – and toxoplasmosis – the disease in their litter – she had a miscarriage. That was in 2019.
Her husband knew nothing. It was better he did not know, for he would be jealous. He was that kind of man.
At DELTA Rescue, yet another man, Jorge Avalos, lived in a modest trailer near the stables to oversee the horses. Avalos was quiet, but he was quite another man inside the aluminum trailer. He hosted Duarte. That, too, was quiet.
But it was more than just animal passion. He provided a place where she could rest and have a companionship her husband could not provide. A few weeks later, she found she was pregnant.
DELTA’s Pregnancy Policy and Toxoplasmosis Warning
DELTA Rescue has a policy regarding pregnant employees and cats—citing the risk of toxoplasmosis as a reason not to work with cats. DELTA posted the guidelines throughout the facility in English and Spanish.
Toxoplasmosis is a parasitic infection spread through cat feces. For most, it causes mild or no symptoms. But for pregnant women, if transmitted to the fetus, it can cause blindness, brain damage, miscarriage, or stillbirth.
A microscopic stowaway in litter boxes. And when a pregnant woman gets too close, it leaps. And suddenly, the baby doesn’t cry. Or can’t hear.
You can’t smell it. You can’t see it. But it can cross the placenta and devastate the fetus. Blindness. Seizures. Neurological collapse.
It is the reason DELTA posted warnings. And the reason any woman working around hundreds of cats while pregnant is gambling with a child’s life.
Why Duarte Hid Her Pregnancy
It was a risk Duarte was willing to take for good reason. She would lose her Saturday income if she got transferred away from the cats. The supplies she transported from DELTA to her swap meets came from her access to the cat houses.
She could hope for a miscarriage like the last time.
Indeed, she was a sturdy woman, and she lifted sacks of food and hauled bags of cat litter—used and fresh—with a vigor that made people wonder how she could pack so much weight and still be so agile.
Once, when she was pregnant, she was up on a ladder.
One of her lovers, the man who had made her pregnant before and was so relieved when she had the miscarriage, who knew she was pregnant again and relieved he was not the father, said she should not climb so high on such a precarious ladder. If she fell, she might have a miscarriage.
Duarte, always a planner, said, if I do, then I will sue DELTA.
Both of them laughed, for they knew it was true.
But no miscarriage came, and Duarte was now seven months, then eight months pregnant. A thickset woman. But even so, there was talk of her being pregnant in time.
On January 23, 2020, DELTA founder Leo Grillo directed a worker, Maria Urias, to inquire. Duarte denied she was pregnant. She kept working with the cats.
The Next Section of the Series
Before we get into the conduct that threatens the animals—which we will cover in the next part of this series—let us discuss the crimes Adriana Duarte Valentines has already committed.
Criminal Conduct:
Adriana Duarte Valentines
1 False Statement on IRS Form Submitted a false SSN on IRS Form W-9 to gain employment 26 U.S.C. § 7206(1); 18 U.S.C. § 1001 Federal Felony
2 Identity Fraud / Use of False ID Invented a Social Security Number to impersonate legal employment status 18 U.S.C. § 1028; CA Penal Code § 529 Both Felony
3 Tax Evasion Worked for cash under the table; never paid income taxes 26 U.S.C. § 7201 / § 7203 Federal Felony
4 Employment Fraud / Misrepresentation Lied about prior work experience (e.g., lettuce picking) to gain job. CA Civil Code § 1572 (fraudulent inducement) State Misdemeanor / Civil
5 Grand Theft / Embezzlement Repeated theft of supplies (pet food, bleach, litter, gloves, etc.) from employer CA Penal Code § 487; § 504 State Felony
6 Running an Unlicensed Business Sold stolen supplies at swap meets for cash without permits or taxes CA Revenue & Taxation Code § 6071 State Misdemeanor
7 Filing False Time Sheets Billed DELTA for hours she did not work CA Labor Code § 1174.6; 18 U.S.C. § 1343 (if electronic payment used) Both Misdemeanor / Felony
8 Conspiracy to Defraud Employer Colluded with security guard and possibly others to aid theft and deception 18 U.S.C. § 371; CA Penal Code § 182 Both Felony
9 Bribery / Quid Pro Quo Conduct Gave “amorous services” to security guard in exchange for looking the other way CA Penal Code § 641.3 (employee bribery) State Misdemeanor / Felony
10 Willful Exposure of Fetus to Harm Worked around 1,500 cats while knowingly pregnant despite toxoplasmosis risks CA Penal Code § 273a (child endangerment) State Misdemeanor / Felony
11 False Denial of Pregnancy Lied to the employer about pregnancy status to avoid reassignment Potential Civil / OSHA or Labor Violation State Civil /
12 Potential Immigration Violations Lived in U.S. illegally for ~20 years and used false identity to gain employment 8 U.S.C. § 1324c; § 1325 Federal Civil / Criminal
13 Premeditated Intent to Sue Based on Fraud Said she would sue DELTA if she miscarried while climbing a ladder CA Penal Code § 550 (false claims) State Felony
Total Charges Identified: 13
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- Felonies: 8–10
- Misdemeanors: 3–5
- Civil Violations / Immigration Infractions: 1–2
