UPDATE: Columbia doctor charged with rape posts bond; placed on GPS monitoring

37-year-old Dr. Travis Birkhead has posted a $50,000 surety bond and has been released from the Boone County jail, with GPS monitoring (October 2022 mug shot courtesy of the Boone County Sheriff’s Department)

A Columbia physician who’s been jailed since October for allegedly raping a woman he met at a bar on the Business Loop has posted a $50,000 surety bond.

37-year-old Dr. Travis Birkhead has been released from the Boone County jail, and he’s hooked up to GPS monitoring, according to online court records. Birkhead posted bond on Friday.

Dr. Birkhead is charged with rape and misdemeanor assault for an alleged incident involving a woman he met at the Black and Gold tavern in October. Defense attorney Kevin O’Brien told the court this month that the surveillance video referenced by CPD simply showed vehicles at the bar and nothing else.

Counselor O’Brien told the court in January that the woman wouldn’t leave Birkhead’s house that night, saying she “went crazy.” O’Brien has told the court there was no sexual assault and that Birkhead was the one who called Columbia Police to ask the woman to leave his home.

Prosecutors describe Dr. Birkhead as a danger to the community, saying he has a history of threatening people. They’ve also said that Birkhead’s ex-wife, a different woman, is terrified of him. He’s facing separate harassment charges in that case. Counselor O’Brien told the Judge Kevin Crane earlier this month that there will be no contact between Birkhead and the alleged victim, saying Birkhead would be living in eastern Missouri’s Lincoln County.

Birkhead’s next appearance in Boone County Circuit Court is set for June 20.