By CAROL MARBIN MILLER AND TERE FIGUERAS NEGRETE

Three days before a controversial trial over the fate of a 4-year-old girl at the center of an international custody dispute, an attorney for the Department of Children & Families dropped a bombshell Friday: They have no records to show that the girl's mother ever agreed to give up custody of the child.

For months, DCF and attorneys for the girl's birth father and foster father have planned for a trial in which the state will seek to prove that Rafael Izquierdo, the girl's Cuban father, is unfit to raise her. The trial is expected to begin Monday.

But at a hastily called emergency hearing Friday morning before Circuit Judge Jeri B. Cohen, DCF attorneys acknowledged they have no documents to prove the girl's mother, Elena Perez, agreed to give up custody. The girl now lives with Joe and Maria Cubas, a Cuban-American family in Coral Gables.

The news infuriated Cohen, said sources who participated in the hearing, which was held in secret despite an order by the Third District Court of Appeal that proceedings in the case be open to the public. Cohen declined to discuss the development with a reporter.

The judge presided over the emergency hearing from her North Miami-Dade home, because she had vacated her courtroom Friday so that another judge could meet with the parties to try to reach a compromise.

The new wrinkle shrouds the case in uncertainty.

If DCF can find no record that the mother agreed to relinquish custody of the girl, Perez may be entitled to a trial in which child welfare attorneys must prove she, too, is unfit. Sources say Perez's attorneys are not prepared to go to trial Monday and may object to the father's trial going forward.

That's because much, if not most, of the evidence to be presented against Izquierdo involves actions by the girl's mom. DCF is arguing, for example, that Izquierdo should have known the child was unsafe with her mother because Perez was mentally ill, but he allowed his daughter to emigrate to the United States with her anyway.

Attorneys for Perez do not want DCF presenting evidence against the mother without her being there to defend herself, sources said.

But the stakes might be higher still: Ira Kurzban, Izquierdo's attorney, said Friday that under Florida law, the state has no jurisdiction to keep the girl from either birth parent if Perez has not already been found unfit. Kurzban said he will ask the judge to return the girl to Izquierdo on Monday if no records can be found that Perez agreed that she was unfit to raise her child.

Lacking an official order, sources said, DCF was hoping to produce a transcript of a court hearing in which Perez surrendered custody. But at Friday's hearing, DCF attorneys acknowledged they have no been able to locate that, either.

''If there is no order of dependency [for the mother] I believe the judge must immediately return the child to her birth father,'' Kurzban said. ``If this does not happen, we certainly intend to file an emergency writ with the Third District Court of Appeal.''

Kevin Coyle Colbert, Perez's attorney, who was present during Friday's emergency hearing, declined to discuss the new development with a reporter. And a spokesman for DCF in Tallahassee, Al Zimmerman, said the confidentiality of foster care proceedings precluded him from discussing the case, as well.

Alan Mishael, attorney for the foster parents, said Friday that DCF's anxiety over the missing record is unnecessary.

''What was discussed today was a clerical error that we expect the court to rectify next week,'' Mishael said. ``[The judge] has full authority to do so, and it will be a matter of course. . . . I'm not losing sleep over this issue.''

The ''clerical error'' to which Mishael referred: Months ago, amid one of the most contentious child welfare cases in Miami history, the juvenile court clerk's office misplaced much of the official record and has been recreating it ever since.

Mishael insists Perez did agree in court to a finding that she was not fit to retain custody of the little girl.

''The mother did consent,'' Mishael said. ``I'm confident that the mother entered a consent. I'm satisfied she entered a consent.''

But Perez insists she did not agree to give up her daughter.

The mother -- who had a romantic relationship with Izquierdo but never married him -- said she agreed to give up her son, a 13-year-old half brother of the 4-year-old girl. He was adopted by the Cubas family.

``In the case of the boy, I asked him during the last visit if he wanted to return [to Cuba]. I told him he had family there, his father, his grandparents. He said no, he didn't want to return. Then I said, go ahead, give me the [adoption] papers.''

The daughter's case, she said, is markedly different: ``I never gave up my daughter.''

Throughout the proceedings, she said, she has felt confused and isolated. ``I'm up in the air. I haven't had anyone on my side.''

Now she says she only wants to be taken into consideration.

DCF has consistently taken the position that Perez formally agreed to the state's dependency petition -- meaning Perez's daughter was dependent on the state because her mother was unfit. And, in a recent court hearing, Cohen recalled the mother's demeanor this way:

'She basically walked in here and said, 'I don't want my kids, ' '' Cohen said. ``She let herself be beaten down by life, and she did not want to fight for her children.''