By Janice Morse
The Cincinnati Enquirer

DAYTON, Ohio - An Ohio Supreme Court decision Wednesday moved a lawyer closer to being jailed for refusing to divulge information in a missing-child case.

The court denied a request by Beth Lewis to continue delaying a lower court's order that she be locked up for refusing to answer a grand jury's questions about the 1999 disappearance of Erica Baker. Then 9, Erica vanished while walking her dog in her suburban neighborhood.

Authorities think Ms. Lewis' now-deceased client, Jan Marie Franks, 32, may have shared some information about what happened to Erica. Mrs. Frank's widower signed an attorney-client privilege waiver under a previously untested section of Ohio law. But Ms. Lewis and her supporters dispute interpretations of the law and have argued that requiring a lawyer to break a promise of confidentiality would erode attorney-client relations.

The Supreme Court hasn't said whether it will consider Ms. Lewis' appeal of that issue.

But as a result of the Supreme Court's action Wednesday, Montgomery County prosecutors asked the Ohio 2nd District Court of Appeals to order Ms. Lewis to come and answer a grand jury's questions during an Oct. 31 session - or present herself at the county jail "and be there confined until such time as she purges herself of contempt."

A Montgomery County judge had issued a contempt order against Ms. Lewis when she initially declined to answer grand jury questions in the case nearly four months ago.

Pam Schmidt, Erica's grandmother, said: "We're encouraged. We don't know what the next step will be, but the system is working ... in Erica's favor."

Erica is among only a few "endangered missing" children whose disappearances have no apparent link to abduction by family members. Hers is the oldest such case from Southwest Ohio listed on the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children's Web site.

E-mail jmorse@enquirer.com