Austin surgeon sentenced to six months in prison amid probation violation

A judge sentenced an Austin doctor accused of assaulting multiple women to six months in prison and 10 years of probation, rejecting a request from prosecutors who asked that he be locked up for a decade after they said he had violated terms of his probation on a previous charge.

The decision by Judge Chantal Eldridge in the case against Dr. Aravind Sankar came after testimony Friday from several women who had been in relationships with Sankar and who said he abused them from at least two decades ago. They also asked that he be sent to prison as the only way to protect other women.

Sankar still has multiple cases pending in Travis County related to domestic violence and is awaiting trial on those cases.

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Separately, he had received deferred adjudication, a form of probation, in 2018 from an assault family violence case in May 2014. The agreement would have spared him of a criminal conviction had he followed the probation terms.

He also was convicted on a felony charge of assault in Bexar County last year and sentenced to 10 years of probation.

Sankar did not address the court Friday. But testimony on his behalf included that from Lisa Sheinberg, who was a hospital administrator at Westlake Hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic and who said Sankar was "instrumental in helping the hospital navigate" the pandemic.

"He was always available for consulting, always available for emergencies and took calls for other cases," she said. "He's an excellent surgeon."

Prosecutors asked Eldrige to revoke the 2018 agreement in Travis County after his arrest in December on a drunken driving charge. They also said in their request that Sankar had not reported to his probation officer as required in 2018.

Eldridge said that she considered multiple factors in deciding how to respond to prosecutors’ request, including testimony that he was a hardworking and excellent surgeon. She also acknowledged that he had sought treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder and said she did not impose a harsher sentence because Travis County prosecutors were previously aware of some of his violence involving women when they negotiated a plea deal with him in 2018.

The agreement occurred during a previous district attorney's administration.

Sankar’s cases and the handling of them by the Texas Medical Board were the subject of an American-Statesman article published Thursday. The board suspended his license in December.

“You need some serious counseling on how to treat women,” Eldridge told Sankar. “I believe their testimony is credible that you put these women through acts of violence that they never should have experienced. If you can’t change your behavior, then you will get prison time.”

A handful of women testified Friday about violence they said they faced from Sankar. That included multiple instances of strangulation. 

“When he would get into these rages, it was so terrifying,” said Rebecca Robinson, a nurse who said Sankar assaulted her while they were dating. He faces several charges in Travis County related to a 2018 incident.

More:Chief of staff at Westlake Medical Center jailed after pleading guilty to assault charge

Kelsey McKay, an attorney who represents some of the women, said she was surprised by the lenient sentence: “The system is broken. There is nothing in it for victims, and it has to change. Victims have to have some voice in the system. First, they are silenced by the abuser and then silenced by the system that lets the case languish on and on. And today, they were silenced by a judge – no cameras, no audio, no nothing.”

Eldridge did not allow cameras in the courtroom, despite a request from the Statesman.