Man Charged With Practicing Medicine Without License
Published: 2009-05-16 20:52:09 Author: KGTV | April 13, 2009
SAN DIEGO -- A man accused of offering
dangerous dietary supplements as alternative remedies for cancer and
other ailments pleaded not guilty Monday to 11 felonies, including
practicing medicine without a license.
Prosecutors allege that
73-year-old Kurt Walter Donsbach of Bonita -- who was ordered held on
$250,000 bail by Judge David Szumowski -- preyed on vulnerable patients
looking for medical help.
Even though he has no medical license
in California, Donsbach claimed to be a chiropractor and naturopathic
doctor, and through a weekly, online radio broadcast from Chula Vista,
offered "alternative, natural and nutritional" remedies for many
conditions and ailments, including cancer and auto-immune disorders,
according to the prosecution.
"The law prohibits the sale of unapproved cancer treatments," Deputy District Attorney Gina Darvas said outside the courtroom.
Donsbach could still be guilty even if he didn't guarantee patients a cure for cancer, the prosecutor said.
She said Donsbach was also not licensed as a chiropractor in California.
Besides
three counts of practicing without a license, he is charged with four
counts of selling misbranded drugs, and single counts of unlawfully
dispensing drugs as a cure for cancer, falsely representing a cure for
cancer, grand theft and attempted grand theft by false pretenses.
He faces six years and four months in prison if convicted.
Donsbach's
clinic advised one patient to inject herself with "neuropeptides" to
treat arthritis, saying it would "re-program" her body's T-cells,
according to prosecutors.