PORTLAND, Ore. – The daughter of a man accused of hiring a hit man to kill his estranged wife put up bail money Friday for his release.
But the money came too late to get Michael Kuhnhausen out Friday, so he was to scheduled to spend the New Year’s weekend in jail and be released on Tuesday, said Lt. Jason Gates of the Multnomah County sheriff’s department.
Kuhnhausen’s daughter from a previous marriage, Angela, posted the required 10 percent of the $1 million bail – $100,000 – Friday, in a money order, Gates said.
He said the action raised eyebrows in the sheriff’s department.
“We’re investigating that,” he said. “We’re kind of curious where she got this money.”
Calls to the address listed for Angela Kuhnhausen on Friday didn’t go through. A recorded message said the number may have been disconnected.
On Thursday, Multnomah County Judge Frank Bearden reduced Michael Kuhnhausen’s bail from $2 million to $1 million but declined to release him outright.
Michael Kuhnhausen was arrested under suspicion of attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder one week after his wife was attacked by an intruder.
The intruder attacked 51-year-old Susan Kuhnhausen with a hammer when she arrived home from work Sept. 6. She fought the man off and strangled him with her bare hands.
At Thursday’s hearing, Deputy District Attorney Brian Davidson said Kuhnhausen had complained to his daughter’s boyfriend that he couldn’t face losing everything as he did in his previous divorce and that “anyone who’d be willing to kill his wife would be well compensated.”
As Davidson spoke, Susan Kuhnhausen sobbed. Moments earlier, she had told the judge that she would live in fear if Michael Kuhnhausen were set free.
“I don’t believe I should be forced into hiding,” she said.
Gates said Friday that Susan Kuhnhausen had been notified her husband would be released.
Defense attorney Donald Upham argued that the connection between his client and the slain intruder, Edward Haffey, is weak.
But Davidson said Haffey, an ex-con, told acquaintances he planned to kill a man’s wife for $25,000 upfront and $25,000 after he did the deed. Davidson also said Kuhnhausen’s daughter told authorities she’d seen Haffey and her father together in the days before the attack.
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