Court Records: Restraining Orders Filed Against Amardeep Kaleka

File Photo: Amardeep Kaleka
File Photo: Amardeep Kaleka

OAKCREEK, WI, USA—WISN 12 News Investigates stunning allegations uncovered in court records that peacemaker Amardeep Kaleka beat, and then threatened, two different women.

A sunny summer Sunday was shattered by gunfire and hate in 2012 when a white supremacist massacred six Sikh worshipers, shot a police officer and then killed himself. 

From the anguish and rear rose a voice of calm with a message of peace. Amardeep Kaleka’s father died in the slaughter, but he called for tolerance, not revenge; Community, not contempt.

“That which a person tried to destroy did not happen,” Kaleka said on the day of the shooting. “You try to hate one of us, and we become a hundred.”

Kaleka took his message across the country, joining survivors of other mass shootings in calling for gun control. He produced a documentary called ‘The Peacemakers,’ and was honored by the anti-defamation league at a star-studded awards ceremony.

Now WISN 12 News has learned the peacemaker is the subject of two domestic violence injunctions.

Laurie Knapp worked on his video production team. She said her relationship with Kaleka turned sexual, then violent. In April, she requested a restraining order. She shared the allegations with WISN 12 News.

“The very first time that, you know, the violence happened, I remember very specifically we had just gone to an event at Parkside, like an anti-gun rally,” she said.

Then she said the two got into an argument.

“He turned around, he just took his hand and back-fisted me in the face,” she said. “No restraint. I had never, ever in my life felt that much pain.”

Knapp said there were a dozen such episodes during their three-year relationship. She read from an excerpt from the restraining order application:

“He drove me around 90 minutes, punching, choking, pulling my hair, then ask me for sex and slap me during it. He would do this when he was forgiving me.”

When asked if she went to the police, Knapp said, “I couldn’t. He’s… I’m not exactly the best at expressing things and he kind of made a business out of it. So I knew that he would be able to twist and turn everything I said against me.”

WISN 12 News obtained recordings of the April restraining order hearing where Kaleka was a no-show. Knapp told the court she saw Kaleka with a gun before he moved from California to Wisconsin to run for Congress.

“He told me and several of his coworkers that he brought it with him to Wisconsin,” Knapp testified.

The court granted an injunction prohibiting Kaleka from any contact with Knapp until 2019 and from possessing any firearms.

WISN 12 News learned this wasn’t the first restraining order against Kaleka.

A month earlier, Kaleka’s wife dialed 911. Kaleka was gone before police arrived, but his wife described the confrontation in court:

“He came from behind,” she said. “I didn’t know he was behind me coming, pulled me up by my hair and threw me full-force on our hardwood floor. Then my 4-year-old started screaming, ‘Don’t hurt mom. Mom’s going to call the police.'”

His wife, too, said Kaleka owned a gun in California.

“In our California home, he threw a gun full-force into the wall, putting a gaping hole this big in there. A loaded gun,” she told the court.

Kaleka attended that hearing and defended his actions.

“Every one of those accounts has another side to the story,” he told the court.

He admitted to damaging property.

“When somebody says he destroyed half the house, it’s a bit of an exaggeration of the anger and the rage I was feeling,” he told the court. “I fully admit that I need counseling and therapy. I’ve sought counseling and therapy.”

He said if his wife was injured, he was just defending himself.

“I think we are at the point of separation and divorce and I think this is all part of a way to build a case,” he said.

The court ordered Kaleka to have no contact with his wife until 2019, and forbade him to possess firearms.

WISN 12 News asked Kaleka to discuss the women’s allegations. Kaleka declined to answer questions, but the filmmaker provided a one-minute videotaped denial.

“I’ve devoted my personal life to spreading the message of non-violence. Unfortunately, because of this devotion to my mission of peace and running my small business, my family life suffered and I’m very sorry for that,” he said in the video. “But I would never hurt someone physically. It goes against everything I believe in.”

Knapp said she’s speaking out now to urge domestic violence victims to get out and to expose the hypocrisy she sees in Kaleka.

“He’s still out there, talking about peace when there’s no way he could,” she said. “He hasn’t found it in himself yet. That’s not right.”

In court, Kaleka signed a sworn statement saying he does not have a gun. The Kalekas have filed for divorce, and prosecutors said the domestic violence case is under review to see if criminal charges are warranted. 

NOTE: An earlier headline identified Amardeep Kaleka as a spokesman for the Sikh temple.  While he has been a spokesperson for the Sikh community, he is not a spokesperson for the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin – Oak Creek, according to a Temple representative.

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