SILVER CREEK – District Attorney Jason Schmidt says the reason he sought to have charges brought up against Angela Bertino when he did was because he was concerned she would get her children back.

Bertino’s daughter Mya died April 29 of diabetic ketoacidosis, a complication of untreated diabetes.

After Mya’s passing, Bertino’s two other children were removed from her care by Child Protective Services.

Mya’s body was brought to the Erie County Medical Examiner’s Office, where her death was classified a homicide.

On Nov. 8, the Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Office announced that Bertino was being charged with second-degree murder.

Schmidt said the charge was determined based on allegations that “Ashley Bertino caused the death of her daughter, Mya Smith, through a course of conduct that was a depraved indifference to human life.”

Schmidt said his original plan was to go to Grand Jury in December for a determination of whether or not to indict and what those charges might be. However his office learned that the local Child Protective Services was going to return Mya’s siblings to Bertino.

“We thought that was completely inappropriate under the circumstances, that it could create a safety issue for the children. As a result we made the decision to charge locally, which led to this preliminary hearing,” he said.

Schmidt said the work for the preliminary hearing came together quickly.

“It wasn’t pre-planned. As soon as we received the information of CPS’ decision, we made a determination on our side and in consultation with our partners at the Sheriff’s Office, we filed the murder charge,” he said.

Schmidt said he disagreed with CPS’ plan to reunite Bertino with her children.

“We did not think it was a smart idea to return these children to the same household of which Mya Smith had died and therefore we took action on our side,” he said.

Schmidt’s office did not file any Order of Protection against Bertino seeing her children in supervised visits while in custody.

“There is a simaultaneous Family Court proceeding that’s going on. They may be monitoring the communications and the access under supervised basis between mom and children,” he said.