Custody standoff continues

No court order is likely to give Tamara Schmidt the relationship she wants with her daughter Brittney Bergeron, Clark County Family Court Judge Gerald Hardcastle said Tuesday.

That probably won't happen until Brittney is an adult and can make those decisions for herself, the judge told a tearful Schmidt, who is now serving four to 12 years in prison for child neglect.

"I deserve contact with my daughter," said Schmidt, who stood before Hardcastle during the hearing wearing wrist shackles and navy prison garb. "I have zero contact with anybody."

Bergeron was 10 when she and her 3-year-old sister were attacked in their Mesquite home after being left alone by Schmidt. Utah siblings Beau and Monique Maestas repeatedly stabbed the children in retaliation for a bogus drug deal that authorities said involved Schmidt.

Bergeron was left paralyzed from the waist down. Her sister was killed.

Even though it's unlikely that Schmidt will be freed before her daughter, now 15, reaches adulthood, she has waged a successful court battle to retain her parental rights.

Bergeron has made no secret of the fact that although she loves her mother, she wishes to be adopted by her foster parents, Bill and Judy Himel.

The situation has created friction, and according to a report from the Clark County Department of Family Services, Bergeron has been refusing to take calls from her mother, who is allowed contact by phone every week.

"Brittney is angry," said Steve Hiltz, lead attorney for the Children's Attorney Project, who represents Bergeron. "The one thing she really wants is to be adopted, and her mother won't allow her to be adopted."

Hardcastle has repeatedly ruled in favor of Schmidt, saying authorities should do everything possible to reunite the mother and daughter.

Hiltz is appealing Hardcastle's decision to the Nevada Supreme Court, but the case has been delayed because Schmidt's former attorney, Stephen Caruso, withdrew from the case.

At Tuesday's status check hearing, Hardcastle offered Schmidt her pick of two court-appointed attorneys. Schmidt did not make a decision.

Hardcastle expressed his displeasure with the failure of people across the system to support mother-daughter contact. If Brittney refuses to come to the phone, Hardcastle said it would seem reasonable for one of the foster parents to take the call and tell Schmidt how her daughter is. That option was discussed at previous meetings of the professionals involved in the Schmidt/Bergeron case.

"The mother wants to know how her daughter is doing," Hardcastle said. "There's a lack of cooperation. There's a lack of consistent commitment to assisting her right to have some knowledge about her child.

"It seems to me that there's been a total lack of that information being passed on."

Neither the Himels nor Bergeron were at the hearing. The Himels could not be reached for comment.

Prosecutor Ron Cordes told Hardcastle the Himels care for other medically fragile foster children and aren't always available to take phone calls.

Cordes also said the Himels have been shouldering more than their fair share of the burden in this case.

"At this point, we're imposing more foster parent obligations on the family than we have in any other case," Cordes said.