Bail was set at $1 million yesterday for a Mount Airy contractor accused of killing a Taylorsville psychologist he had worked for and owed $300,000.

Randall H. Gerlach, 56, of the 13000 block of Manor Drive in Frederick County was arrested Wednesday on a charge of first-degree murder of Rodney R. Cocking, a National Science Foundation official who disappeared Feb. 23.

Carroll District Judge Marc G. Rasinsky said Gerlach is entitled to bail, but he set the amount at $1 million and ordered that Garlach be placed on a home-monitoring program and surrender his passport if he posts bond. Gerlach remained at the Carroll County Detention Center in Westminster last night.

In arguing for bail, defense attorney William L. Haugh Jr. said Gerlach has known for weeks that he was a suspect in the case but did not flee. Investigators searched his home office and his pickup truck - and placed a bug on the vehicle "so they knew where he was going. ... He certainly could have left the state, left the country," his attorney said.

Gerlach has deep roots in the community, Haugh told the judge. A contractor with no criminal record, he has a wife and two grown children and has lived in Mount Airy for more than 30 years. He had a high-security clearance with the Army.

"If he is locked up and incarcerated, he simply cannot help me with this case," Haugh said. "There are ancillary charges that are extremely complicated. ... We know it's an uphill battle for us."

A thick set of charging documents details years of loans by Cocking to Gerlach for supposed real estate investments, and authorities said the doctor was expecting his money back in February. No criminal charges have been filed in the schemes alleged in the court documents, which name other potential defendants and victims, and these probably would fall under federal jurisdiction, said Senior State's Attorney David P. Daggett.