By Janice Morse
The Cincinnati Enquirer

COLUMBUS - An Ohio Supreme Court ruling could lead to a break in the mystery of what happened to Erica Nicole Baker in 1999.

That's what Erica's family is hoping for, after the court's unanimous, precedent-setting ruling Wednesday. Upholding two lower courts' rulings, the Supreme Court said that Dayton-area lawyer Beth Lewis must break attorney-client confidentiality and tell what a now-deceased client might have revealed about Erica, who was 9 when she disappeared near her home in Kettering, south of Dayton.

"We're ecstatic ... I hope we can get down to some truth here," said Erica's mother, Misty Baker, by telephone from her home in Kettering, south of Dayton. "I hope that some names were mentioned and that we can find out where Erica is. ... That's what I've been fighting for, for five years."

Erica's father, Greg Baker, said he hopes the ruling could push other informants to disclose information.

"If you know something and don't come forward at this time, it may be too late for you to come forward in the future if the authorities receive the information they are hoping to when Beth Lewis is questioned," he said in an e-mail to the Enquirer.

Neither Lewis nor her Cincinnati attorneys returned telephone calls seeking comment Wednesday. Lewis faces jail time for contempt of court if she refuses to tell a grand jury what Jan Franks, a woman who died in 2001, may have disclosed about Erica's fate.

Authorities want to question Lewis about tips that Franks might have been in a van that accidentally struck Erica, last seen wearing a pink raincoat as she walked her dog on Feb. 7, 1999, a drizzly Sunday afternoon. The tips claim that van's occupants panicked and disposed of Erica's body, Mrs. Baker said.

Despite national publicity and exhaustive searches, no trace of Erica has been found. No one has been charged.

"I'm ready for some answers. And whether or not they're the answers I want to hear, I need to hear them anyway," Mrs. Baker said.

Greg Flannagan, spokesman for the Montgomery County Prosecutor's Office, said authorities doubt Lewis has any standing to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. However, Flannagan said, Lewis has 10 days to file a motion asking the Ohio Supreme Court to reconsider - or she could choose to remain silent and be sent to jail.

The court's ruling comes more than four months after a special Clinton County session where the justices heard intense arguments over a previously untested, 50-year-old Ohio law. The law says a surviving spouse may waive a deceased spouse's attorney-client privilege under certain circumstances.

After Erica's relatives discovered the law and urged authorities to act on it, police persuaded Franks' estranged husband, Shane Franks, to give written permission for Lewis to disclose information about Erica to authorities. Lewis had represented Franks in matters unrelated to Erica's case.

Lewis disputed Mr. Franks' authority to waive his wife's privilege and refused to answer 18 of 20 questions a grand jury posed. Two lower courts found her in contempt in 2002; a jail order was put on hold pending her appeal to the Supreme Court.

Lewis' lawyers had argued that forcing her to testify would have a chilling effect on attorney-client discussions.

Montgomery County prosecutors said that was an overreaction. Lewis' statements would be made to a grand jury, whose proceedings are secret, they pointed out.

In Wednesday's ruling, Chief Justice Thomas J. Moyer wrote that Mr. Franks' waiver compels Lewis to testify because "(The law) vests authority to waive the attorney-client privilege in the surviving spouse, and not in an attorney. Shane Franks was the surviving spouse of Jan Franks and waived her privilege."

E-mail jmorse@enquirer.com