Arraignment Again Delayed
in Orinda Psychiatrist Murder

WALNUT CREEK — For a second day in a row today, a Contra Costa County Superior Court judge postponed the arraignment of Orinda resident Susan Mae Polk, who is in custody on suspicion of murdering her estranged husband.

Polk, 44, was arrested late Monday night after police found the body of Frank Felix Polk, 70, in the couple’s Orinda home, where she no longer lived. They were reportedly in the middle of a bitter, drawn-out divorce. Felix Polk, a Cal alum, was a practicing psychiatrist based in Berkeley. The homicide was Orinda’s first in three years.

Superior Court Judge Milton R. Earle agreed Friday to reschedule the arraignment at the request of attorney William Osterhoudt, who may represent Susan Polk.

As she was asking for a public defender in court Thursday, the initial hearing date, Polk’s father Theodore Bolling interrupted the proceedings and asked for a delay because he said he hoped to hire Osterhoudt, a San Francisco criminal defense attorney.

Osterhoudt, who first met with Susan Polk on Thursday night, told the judge it was “necessary to talk” further with the defendant before he could appear as her counsel.

Police believe that a domestic dispute between the couple Monday night turned deadly and said they had sufficient evidence to arrest her for murder.
Susan Polk, who was living out of state, was supposed to collect her things from the couple’s house Saturday. Orinda police had been asked by Felix Polk to stand by then, but she never showed, said Contra Costa Sheriff’s spokesperson Jimmy Lee.

She apparently went to the house Monday night, when police responded to a 911 call made just after 9 p.m. by the couple’s 15-year-old son, who said he heard gun shots. When Orinda officers arrived, they found Felix Polk in the pool house and his wife in another part of the house.

An autopsy result found that he died from “multiple stab wounds and blunt force trauma,” but no gunshots, Lee said. Police took into evidence a knife, believed to be the murder weapon.

During Friday’s hearing, Deputy District Attorney Tom O’Conner raised the issue of the defendant’s bail, asking as he did the previous day that the amount be raised from $1,050,000 to $5 million.

O’Conner said in court that Susan Polk could make bail, calculating from divorce records that she has $1.5 million and that she also co-owns the $2 million Orinda home and a Berkeley apartment complex.

“I do think there is a risk to the public and to the defendant’s children, including one of her sons who was a witness,” O’Conner said.

O’Conner also said he heard from a relative that Susan Polk’s children “love their mother, but they would like to see her in custody.” Outside of court, he explained that the son was only a witness to the events before and after the alleged murder.

Osterhoudt argued, saying that Susan Polk would “never” harm her children. The defendant, who stood quietly in a corner of the courtroom with her hands cuffed in front of her, appeared to be holding back tears throughout the proceeding.

Judge Earle, who did not preside over the case Thursday, agreed that she was also a flight risk, but set a bail hearing for Wednesday. Susan Polk will remain in a Martinez detention facility until then.

Osterhoudt, and Susan Polk’s brother and mother who were also in court, declined to comment.