ORLANDO, Fla. -- Noelle Bush's drug treatment workers may not be forced to
tell police officers about whether she had cocaine in her shoe -- but
nothing is stopping investigators or anyone else from learning more details
in open court.

Gov. Jeb Bush's only daughter must give a judge an update on her drug
treatment next week. Anyone can sit in on the hearing and learn facts that
a judge ruled can't be disclosed by drug treatment workers, legal experts
said Wednesday.

"Can a prosecutor go to the court and listen to that? Yeah, because it's an
open court," said Bruce J. Winick, a law professor at the University of Miami.

Circuit Judge Belvin Perry ruled Monday that four drug rehab workers aren't
required to tell investigators whether Noelle Bush, 25, was found with a
piece of crack cocaine in her shoe last month.

In a case closely watched by drug counselors nationwide, Perry ruled that a
drug treatment patient's right to privacy outweighs the interest of a
criminal investigation.

Prosecutors plan to appeal, but the Orlando Police Department has in the
meanwhile placed the case on inactive status.

Noelle Bush will appear next week before Circuit Judge Reginald Whitehead,
who is supervising her treatment program. He will decide whether to keep
Bush in the program or send her to criminal court to face charges from a
February arrest. Bush was arrested for allegedly buying an anti-anxiety
drug with a fraudulent prescription at a Tallahassee pharmacy.

During drug court status hearings, judges are given updates from
defendants, drug treatment centers and others involved in a defendant's
treatment.

Randy Means, a spokesman for the Orange-Osceola State Attorney's Office,
said Wednesday that the office will not listen in on Bush's hearing. But he
added that it is inconsistent for Perry to prevent prosecutors from getting
information the public can get.

"How can they have it in an open courtroom?" Means said. "To be consistent
with the ruling, they will have to have it in a closed courtroom."

Court spokeswoman Karen Levey said Whitehead was in court all day and
couldn't be reached for comment on whether he would close the hearing.

Bush's attorney, Peter Antonacci, declined comment.

David Bralow, a First Amendment attorney for the Orlando Sentinel, said
Perry's decision should not be used to close Bush's hearing or others. Such
hearings have been public ever since the drug courts were created, he said.