By Brian Anderson
Valley Times

Sept. 14, 2001

PLEASANTON — An Alameda County judge ordered Friday that a woman accused of abducting her kids to keep them from her ex-husband -- a registered sex offender living in Livermore -- must return the girls to California.

Superior court Judge Ronald Hyde ordered Debra Kay Schmidt to tell authorities where the children are located in Texas and have them turned over to county foster care officials no later than Sept. 24.

"This is the home state," Hyde said during a morning hearing at the Pleasanton courthouse. "Nothing is going to be done in this case until the kids are here."

County Prosecutor Robert Hutchins said his office was ready to bring the children home.

"(Hyde's) just following the law, what should have been done all along," he said. "She's just determined to do it her own way."

Schmidt, 42, pleaded not guilty earlier this week in Pleasanton to the abduction charges. She was brought back to California from Texas following a custody battle between the two states. A federal judge ruled late last month that Texas had to return Schmidt, who received temporary asylum there after the state's governor refused to sign an extradition warrant.

Schmidt took the kids to Texas after a judge in San Joaquin County allowed the woman's ex-husband, Manuel Saavedra, visitation of the 7- and 9-year-old girls. Schmidt and her supporters have said she left the state because Saavedra had pleaded guilty in 1992 to fondling a 13-year-old girl at a neighborhood block party.

Complicating the case further, said county prosecutor Robert Hutchins, is Texas Judge Jeanne Meurer's decision granting Texas control of the case and allowing Schmidt to keep the children in that state.

Wearing yellow jail clothes, Schmidt at times interrupted her attorney, Rollie Pennington, speaking directly to Hyde during Friday's hearing. She spoke only a few words before Pennington and Hyde told her not to talk.

"I disagree with the judge's decision," Pennington said outside the courtroom, adding that he plans to ask an appellate court to overturn Hyde's ruling.

Hutchins said the girls would be put in foster care in Alameda County until another hearing can be held to determine whom they will stay with.

"This is a temporary thing," Hutchins said.

Outside the courthouse, Hutchins offered to Schmidt, through Pennington, a chance to plead guilty to a felony for which she would be placed on five years probation. If she complies with all conditions of probation during the five-year period, her record would show only a misdemeanor conviction.

Pennington declined to accept the deal, saying: "I think her position is that she wants to be heard in front of jury."

Schmidt is being held at Santa Rita Jail on $100,000 bail.