Jose (Tony) Deleu; Butler Filed AIDS Bias Suit

Jose (Tony) Deleu, 47, a butler who claimed that he was fired by a Manhattan socialite because he had AIDS. Deleu had filed a $1.5-million discrimination lawsuit against France Scaife, wife of an heir to the Mellon family fortune and a committeewoman on the Pittsburgh AIDS Task Force. Deleu’s attorney, David Spears, said the discrimination claim was recently dropped because of a loophole in the state anti-discrimination law that exempts domestics. Spears said he planned to continue fighting Deleu’s lawsuit on charges that Scaife owed him overtime pay and Social Security and health insurance benefits. Deleu worked as Scaife’s butler at her Upper East Side apartment for seven years. In New York City on Friday of the complications of AIDS.