Tech mogul Gurbaksh Chahal gets 1 year in domestic violence case

In this April 22, 2016 photo, Gurbaksh Chahal, center, a millionaire tech mogul, walks out of court at the Hall of Justice in San Francisco. Chahal is facing possible jail time for violating his probation in a domestic violence case. Prosecutors say he violated his probation by attacking a second girlfriend. less In this April 22, 2016 photo, Gurbaksh Chahal, center, a millionaire tech mogul, walks out of court at the Hall of Justice in San Francisco. Chahal is facing possible jail time for violating his probation in a ... more Photo: Gabrielle Lurie, Associated Press Photo: Gabrielle Lurie, Associated Press Image 1 of / 4 Caption Close Tech mogul Gurbaksh Chahal gets 1 year in domestic violence case 1 / 4 Back to Gallery

Multimillionaire tech mogul Gurbaksh Chahal — once one of San Francisco’s Internet entrepreneur darlings until he was convicted of domestic abuse and ousted from his own company — was sentenced to 12 months in County Jail Friday by a judge citing his pattern of violence against women.

Prosecutors said Chahal, 34, attacked a woman in his San Francisco penthouse in 2014, just a year after beating a different woman in the same apartment, and that his actions violated the probation he was placed under as a result of the first case.

San Francisco Superior Court Judge Tracie Brown agreed with the district attorney’s office last month, and ordered Chahal to surrender his passports. After she sentenced Chahal on Friday, he remained free on $250,000 bail, pending an appeal that his attorney has 30 days to file.

“I don’t think it would be appropriate to keep Mr. Chahal on probation given the nature of the new incident,” Brown said in court.

It could have been worse for the tech founder, who stepped down as CEO of advertising company Gravity4 after last month’s ruling that he had violated his probation. The district attorney’s office recommended he get 18 months in jail, the maximum sentence.

Chahal, dressed in a suit and black tie, his shirt unbuttoned at the top, did not speak during the hearing, though he was given the option to address the court before being sentenced. He had no obvious reaction to the sentence, mostly looking forward with his head bowed.

Assistant District Attorney O’Bryan Kenney said during the hearing that Chahal had shown “a complete lack of remorse” after being accused of abusing the second woman.

Chahal had, according to prosecutors, violated the terms of his probation in other ways. In particular, they said, he yelled at his probation officer while discussing community service he was required to perform.

His attorneys, in arguing that he should not be sent to jail, cited his contributions to charitable causes. They also asked the judge to take into account Chahal’s “functional neurological disorder,” saying the medical condition affects muscle strength and movement and comparing it with Parkinson’s disease.

Chahal has stirred controversy and outrage since he was first arrested in August 2013, after he attacked his former girlfriend inside his Rincon Hill penthouse.

Police investigators seized surveillance camera footage that they said showed Chahal beating and kicking the woman more than 100 times. But a judge suppressed the video from evidence, ruling it had been unlawfully seized.

Prosecutors charged Chahal with 47 felony counts related to domestic violence. However, without the 30-minute video as evidence, Chahal struck a deal and pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor charges of domestic violence and battery, leading him to be placed on probation.

Chahal was removed from his role as chief executive of San Francisco advertising company RadiumOne soon after the plea. But just over a year later, Chahal allegedly attacked a woman he was dating.

On Sept. 7, 2014, prosecutors said, Chahal kicked a South Korean woman roughly 10 times in his apartment. They asserted that he conspired to keep the woman from talking to the police by threatening to report her to immigration authorities for purportedly faking a marriage to obtain a U.S. visa.

The woman returned to South Korea in the middle of litigation, prompting Chahal’s defense team to argue he had a right to confront her in the probation hearing. Since the woman could not testify, Judge Brown admitted her statements to a 911 dispatcher and hospital workers into evidence.

Brown ruled last month that the video of Chahal’s first attack could be entered into evidence when considering whether Chahal violated probation in the alleged second assault. However, she later sealed the evidence to protect the privacy of the woman in the video.

Kenney had argued for the judge to admit the video, calling the similarity between the two incidents “remarkable.” In both cases, he said, Chahal accused the women of infidelity. Kenney called on the court last month to immediately put Chahal in jail without bail, a request the judge denied.

Much of Friday’s hearing centered on the availability of the South Korean woman to testify. Chahal’s team said the woman had visited Las Vegas after telling the district attorney’s office she could not return to the United States. Her refusal to show up suggested she was an “untrustworthy” witness, said attorney James Lassart.

“The Constitution requires that my client be able to confront his accuser,” Lassart said. “All activity indicates that she does not want to be confronted.”

Kenney said her actions did not affect her credibility, and he argued it was inappropriate for the defense team to have information about where and when the woman had traveled.

Before becoming chief executive of RadiumOne, Chahal founded and sold two Internet companies for more than $300 million, all by the age of 25. He also released a memoir: “The Dream: How I Learned the Risks and Rewards of Entrepreneurship and Made Millions.”

During his rapid rise to tech fame and fortune, he appeared on “The Oprah Winfrey Show.” He had a role on Fox TV’s “Secret Millionaire,” a series in which wealthy individuals went “undercover” in poor neighborhoods — in Chahal’s case, San Francisco’s Tenderloin.

Once, he was named one of America’s most eligible bachelors on the entertainment television program “Extra.”

Libby Rainey is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: lrainey@sfchronicle.com