David N. Hause Jr., 38, is charged in U.S. District Court with robbing Midwest Regional Credit Union, 1015 W. Sixth St.

An FBI agent says the suspect in the robbery of a Lawrence credit union last Friday confessed to four bank robberies.

David N. Hause Jr., 38, is charged in U.S. District Court with robbing Midwest Regional Credit Union, 1015 W. Sixth St. At the time of the robbery, Hause was free on bond, awaiting extradition to Nebraska for a 2007 bank robbery. This week, a federal magistrate denied him bond.

A criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court details how investigators linked Hause to the credit union robbery.

The break in the case came as officers with the U.S. Marshal’s Service arrested Hause after a short foot chase Tuesday morning near the Regency Inn in Kansas City, Kan.

“We received some anonymous information through our office in Topeka that he was in our area,” said U.S. Marshal Matt Cahill, a task force leader for the fugitive section in Kansas City, Kan.

Cahill said officers were aware that Lawrence police and FBI agents thought Hause was a suspect in the Lawrence robbery. According to the complaint written by FBI Special Agent Arch Gothard, marshals discovered a large roll of $10 and $5 bills in a sock in Hause’s pocket, so they alerted the FBI and Lawrence police.

Federal charge

Among other details in the federal complaint:

• Last Friday morning, Hause told clerks at the Lawrence credit union that he was armed, but he was not. He had hidden his hand under clothing. A branch manager had told investigators he struck her in the face, but Hause denied that.

• About $7,650 was taken in the credit union robbery, along with a dye pack and bait bills.

• For about 30 minutes before he went inside the credit union, Hause said, he watched the building. After the robbery, he ran through some yards, got in a blue Chevrolet Cavalier and drove away.

• Hause said that 12 hours after the Lawrence robbery, he found what he thought was a tracking device in a stack of $20 bills. “He panicked and threw this pack out of the window of the car,” Gothard wrote in the complaint.

• One of Hause’s friends — Amy Lynn Johnson — told the FBI that Hause made her rent a hotel room for him on Sunday. After Hause was arrested, Johnson let agents search the hotel room, where they found a pair of brown boots that officers believe match a scuff mark left at the credit union.

• After waiving his Miranda rights, Hause told FBI agent Gothard he had acted alone in robbing the credit union and three banks. He said he came to Lawrence because Shawnee County Sheriff’s officers were looking for him in Topeka.

Prosecution

Although court documents indicate Hause confessed to a total of four robberies, Hause presently faces only one federal bank robbery charge — for the Lawrence credit union, said Jim Cross, a spokesman for acting U.S. Attorney Marietta Parker. He still is charged in Nebraska with robbing a branch of Cornerstone Bank in York.

York County (Neb.) Attorney Tim Sieh said he had talked with Kansas authorities about this week’s developments, but he declined to comment further.

The Nebraska robbery occurred in October 2007, and Hause was charged a year later, after people from his hometown of Abilene recognized him in bank surveillance video. Soon after he was charged, the Kansas Highway Patrol arrested Hause near Topeka. A Shawnee County judge set his bond at $50,000, which he posted through a bonding company later in October.

Capt. Tim Phelps, of the Shawnee County Sheriff’s Office, said a judge can set a bond for a fugitive suspect awaiting extradition — based on a recommendation from the state that wants the suspect or if the judge determines the defendant does not pose a threat if bond is posted.

According to court documents, defense attorney Ronald Wurtz has been appointed to defend Hause in the federal case. Hause had waived his right to a detention hearing.

U.S. Magistrate Judge James P. O’Hara ruled Hause would pose a serious risk to public safety if he were released before trial. Cahill, of the U.S. Marshal’s office, says it’s likely the federal prosecution will proceed before the state charge in Nebraska.

Hause has a lengthy criminal history. He served prison time in Kansas for multiple burglaries and thefts, and he once escaped from Lansing Correctional Facility.