A Wahiawa doctor accused in a murder for hire case made his initial appearance in state District Court this morning dressed in the same short-sleeved shirt and beige slacks he wore when he was arrested on Monday.

Dr. Dennis Ayon, 48, will remain behind bars in lieu of $1 million cash bail pending a preliminary hearing scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Ayon is accused of conspiring to have the mother of his 4-year-old-son killed.

Harrison Kiehm, Ayon’s attorney, told the judge his client is  not guilty and asked that the cash bail imposed on Ayon be reduced.

"He is not a flight risk," Kiehm said.

District Judge Gerald Kibe also had questions about the cash bail requirement. After discussing the matter with other judges, Kibe said he isn’t certain requiring bail be posted all in cash is permissible under the circumstances.

Deputy Prosecutor Daniel Kawamoto said his office would be amenable to raising the bail amount to $10 million, which would mean Ayon would still need to come up with $1 million cash to be released.

Kibe decided to keep the $1 million cash bail in place for now.

According to court documents, Ayon asked one of his patients to have the boy’s mother killed. Instead, the female patient contacted the boy’s mother on Monday, and Ayon was arrested at his Wahiawa office that afternoon.

The patient said Ayon was agitated and unhappy that he had lost visitation privileges for his son.

Court records show that in 2007, a judge ordered Ayon to stay away from the boy’s mother for 10 years to prevent domestic abuse or recurrence of abuse.

The boy’s mother is also seeking a restraining order to further limit Ayon’s contact with the son.

Criminal solicitation is punishable by 20 years in prison.