A San Diego County man who claimed to be a doctor and handed out supplements alleging they cured cancer has pleaded not guilty to practicing medicine without a license and 10 other felonies.
Kurt Donsbach,73, is in jail Tuesday morning with bail set at $250,000.
Prosecutors say the defendant claims to be a chiropractor and naturopathic doctor.
However, prosecutors say Kurt Donsbach has no license to practice medicine in California. And they say he took his business beyond selling legal supplements, and may have made false promises to patients with cancer, and other serioius illnesses, even harming at least two.
He treated Coretta Scott King before she died of ovarian cancer in 2006.
"He shouldn't be preying on these types of people," said District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis.
The DA's office says Donsbach told patients he had a 60% success rate in treating certain types of cancer. He's accused of supplying patients with supplements and drugs not approved by the FDA.
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In at least one case, prosecutors say he advised a woman with arthritis to inject herself with neuropeptides. The drugs contained a steroid not disclosed on the labels. After six years of the treatment, the woman saw a medical doctor who told her she had severe bone density loss caused by the injections.
Police searched Donsbach's home on April 9 taking away boxes of evidence. Prosecutors are looking for other patients who may have received harmful treatment.
"If you bought something off the internet from this defendant, then we need to know about it, and you need to stop taking it," said Dumanis.
