Judge Sets Bail At $6.45 Million For Surgeon Charged With Child Rape

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A judge has set bail at $6.45 million for a Northern California brain surgeon charged with sexually abusing children.

Prosecutors had opposed bail for Dr. James Kohut, saying the neurologist is a public danger who recruits women to help find child victims. The Santa Cruz district attorney's office says Kohut also discussed impregnating women to give birth to children he could sexually abuse in a so-called taboo family lifestyle.

Prosecutors say there is no evidence he created such a family, but they have charged him with 11 counts of sexually abusing children under the age of 14. He has pleaded not guilty.

Kohut was arrested in his Santa Cruz, California home last month along with two nurses who are charged with participating in child sex abuse with the 57-year-old.

Copyright 2017 The Associated Press.