Former Tyler doctor sentenced to eight years

TYLER – A Tyler doctor who was arrested in 2024 for allegedly sexually assaulting his patients was sentenced to 8 years in prison on Friday, according to a report from our news partner KETK.

On Oct. 24, 2023, 56-year-old Kenneth Donald Haygood was temporarily suspended by the disciplinary panel of the Texas Medical Board after violating a June 2023 Final Order, which restricted him from seeing female patients. The order stated that he needed to complete multiple continuing medical education courses and pass exams, in addition to paying a $5,000 administrative penalty. According to the Texas Medical Board, Haygood did not get consent before doing a physical exam of a female patient, and inappropriately discussed the encounter with the patient’s family via text message “in an attempt to intimidate them as witnesses.”

In November 2023, an official investigation was opened by authorities into suspicions of sexual assaults by Haygood. According to investigators, victims revealed that Haygood had allegedly sexually assaulted them while claiming he was checking their thyroid, giving a therapeutic massage and performing examinations.

Haygood was first arrested for three counts of sexual assault and one count of aggravated sexual assault of a child in February of 2024. That summer, he was indicted on six charges of sexual assault and one charge of aggravated sexual assault of a child, as well as being indicted for practicing medicine without a license. In 2025, he was indicted on another count of sexual assault.

Haygood, was originally indicted on seven counts of sexual assault, aggravated sexual assault and practicing medicine without a license, but only two counts of sexual assault were not dismissed in court. He was sentenced to eight years in prison on Friday, Sept. 19, 2025, after he pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual assault.