Crime & Safety

Police: Thomas Kinkade, Girlfriend in Domestic Disturbance in 2011

Amy Pinto-Walsh, Thomas Kinkade's live-in girlfriend, accused the painter of hitting her, but police found insufficient evidence in the July 2011 incident, and she later recanted her charge.

A Los Gatos-Monte Sereno police report obtained by Los Gatos Patch describes the late artist Thomas Kinkade's live-in girlfriend Amy Pinto-Walsh as claiming he physically abused her, although officers said they saw no evidence of injuries.

His brother, Patrick Kinkade, has acknowledged to other media sources that the famous painter was an alcoholic.

Public scrutiny regarding the painter’s tumultuous life has increased since his death, and in the wake of reports of his alcoholism and financial troubles faced by Pacific Metro, also known as The Thomas Kinkade Company, which filed for bankruptcy protection in June 2010.

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Kinkade's estate and Pinto-Walsh have been fighting over her public statements, which the estate says hurt its interests. The police report sheds new light on Pinto-Walsh and her credibility.

In the aftermath of Kinkade's death, Los Gatos Patch filed a public information request for any police report involving domestic disturbances at the home of the painter and Pinto-Walsh. One police report was released by the Town of Los Gatos on May 30.

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In the report, portions of which were blacked out, Los Gatos Monte Sereno police officer Steve Wahl wrote that he responded at 3:24 a.m. on July 20, 2011 to a report of a domestic dispute at Kinkade's Ridgecrest Drive mansion. He stated Pinto-Walsh had called police dispatch to say Kinkade and his daughter had "broken into the house and were hitting her (Pinto-Walsh)," and that she screamed hysterically, "He's hitting me, he's hitting me."

When Wahl arrived at the residence with Los Gatos Monte Sereno police officers David Gregg and Derek Moye, Gregg heard Pinto-Walsh screaming while standing on the staircase, "He's upstairs, he's upstairs."

According to the report, Pinto-Walsh told Moye that Kinkade's daughter had attacked her and Pinto-Walsh's breath smelled of alcohol. The police described Pinto-Walsh as "unsteady on her feet staggering slightly many times as she walked."

Pinto-Walsh told Wahl that Kinkade "had accosted her and hit her," striking her on the head with a hockey stick while she was asleep in their upstairs bedroom. She then pushed him, ran out and called the police, according to the report.

However, Wahl wrote: "I saw no marks of any kind on her face, neck or arms."

Gregg also stated that Pinto-Walsh said Kinkade woke her up and said, " You f------ b----, I'm going to kill you, you threatened my wife and kids, you're going to go to the media."

Pinto-Walsh, the officer wrote, also went on a "tirade" about police corruption and that he saw no sign of a wound on her head. Gregg also noted that Pinto-Walsh refused to let him photograph her head for a sign of the alleged injury.

The officer described Pinto-Walsh as uncooperative and incoherent. Gregg also said in the report that when he went to talk to Kinkade, the painter "was ... completely oblivious to my presence."

The officer reported Kinkade was taken by ambulance to the hospital for medical treatment and that Gregg gave Pinto-Walsh a victim's bill of rights card also known as a Marsy's card and a domestic violence resource card.

In a subsequent report about audio recorded phone conversations with Kinkade and Pinto-Walsh, police officer Jamie Bryant writes that she contacted Pinto-Walsh on the phone six days later to follow up on the July 20, 2011 incident and that she referred to Kinkade as a celebrity.

Pinto-Walsh also told Bryant she was concerned the information she shared about the incident would become public and then, recanting what she told police earlier, denied that Kinkade had hit her or that she had sustained injuries during the altercation.

Pinto-Walsh also told Bryant that she had called police because, "it was my intent to get him help," and added, "He did not hit me." She told the officer, however, that Kinkade was "blocking her ability to leave the residence and that he feared that she would leave him."

Bryant also wrote that she called Kinkade on his cell phone to discuss the incident and he said he didn't recall any negative confrontation with Pinto-Walsh. He referred to her as his girlfriend and said the relationship between them was fine. He also told the officer that Pinto-Walsh had called police "out of concern ... and not due to an argument they were having."

The painter told the officer that he had been drinking in a social setting with friends the evening of July 19 and into the early morning hours of the next day. "He had been drinking 'hard alcohol' that had somehow shown up at his house and 'overdoing it,'" the officer noted.

Bryant recommended that the case be closed and no charges were leveled in the case.

In the last two years of his life, those close to the painter who have declined to be identified said he faced several demons, from his alcohol and substance abuse to his volatile relationship with Pinto-Walsh.

They also cited his 2010 bankruptcy filing for Pacific Metro, the manufacturing arm of his Morgan Hill company, and they pointed to a series of lawsuits against his company filed by investors seeking restitution for financial claims. 

In 2010, Kinkade was arrested for a DUI, to which he pleaded no contest.

When contacted for comment about the police report, Thomas Kinkade Estate spokeswoman Marcia Horowitz said in an email she believes there was no reason for Los Gatos Patch to seek comment from the estate.

"It's not appropriate to comment on a police report,” Horowitz wrote.

Pinto-Walsh has not returned numerous calls from Los Gatos Patch seeking comment.

To read the complete police report, please check the attached pdf to this article.


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