Port-au-Prince , Haiti ( CNN ) -- A Haitian attorney representing 10 Americans charged with kidnapping for trying to take 33 children out of Haiti told CNN Sunday he has resigned . Edwin Coq said he had quit as a lawyer for the Americans . It was n't immediately clear who would replace him . `` I know that they have been looking at other lawyers , '' said Phyllis Allison , mother of one of those detained , Jim Allen . `` They do n't know what to do . '' The 10 missionaries , including group leader Laura Silsby , were charged Thursday with kidnapping children and criminal association . Coq had said that court hearings would be held Monday and Tuesday for his clients , who have been split up at two prisons . He has tried to get the Americans released , though he has also blamed Silsby for the missionaries ' legal troubles . Conviction on the kidnapping charge would carry a maximum penalty of life in prison ; the criminal association charge would carry a penalty of three to nine years , according to a former justice minister . The Americans were turned back a week ago as they tried to take the children across the border into the Dominican Republic without proper documentation . They said they were going to house them in a converted hotel in that country and later move them to an orphanage they were building there . The Americans have said they were just trying to help the children leave the earthquake-stricken country . A January 12 earthquake flattened Haiti 's capital and killed more than 200,000 people . `` Except for Laura -- the group 's leader , who took the responsibility to displace these 33 children , fully knowing she did n't have any legal document that would allow her to do so -- the other nine American citizens did n't know anything about what was going on and I remain convinced that they would not have given their accord , '' Coq told CNN . Coq added that Silsby `` said she had no intention to do any harm . '' Some of the detained Americans have said they thought they were helping orphans , but their interpreters told CNN this week that they were present when group members spoke with some of the children 's parents . Some parents in a village outside Port-au-Prince said they had willingly given their children to the Americans , who promised them a better life . The parents also said they were told they could see their children whenever they wanted . The Dominican consul general has said he warned Silsby about trying to cross the border without proper documents . Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive told CNN 's `` Larry King Live '' Thursday that the judge in the case has three months to decide whether to prosecute . `` We hope that he will decide long before those three months , '' he said . `` He can release them , he can ask to prosecute them . '' If a decision is made to prosecute , the case would be heard before a jury , he said . Bellerive told CNN the Haitian government was open to the possibility of the case being transferred to a U.S. court , but he said the request would have to come from the United States . `` Until now , I was not asked , '' he said . Coq told CNN he had been hired by Eric Thompson , husband of Carla Thompson , one of the arrested missionaries , on behalf of the families .
Ten Americans `` have been looking at other lawyers , '' mother of one detainee says . Edwin Coq was trying to get Americans released , blamed group leader for legal troubles . Americans charged with kidnapping for trying to take 33 children out of Haiti . Leader knew she did n't have legal document to let her take children out , Coq says .