NOELLE BUSH'S DRUG HEARING TO BE OPEN

An Orlando judge on Tuesday refused to hold a closed-door drug court
hearing for Noelle Bush, saying the proceeding is just like any other
criminal case and open access is critical so the public can see how the
system works.

Orange County Circuit Judge Reginald Whitehead set a hearing for Bush, the
daughter of Gov. Jeb Bush, for Thursday morning.

It is expected that the judge will be told at the hearing that staffers at
an Orlando drug treatment center found crack cocaine in one of Bush's shoes
last month.

'Drug court status hearings are first and foremost a criminal court
proceeding. Simply because the proceedings have been labeled 'drug court'
does not alter that fact," the judge said in a 16-page ruling. "All drug
court participants, including defendant, have been charged with a crime and
are facing prosecution by the state for that crime unless and until they
successfully complete the drug court program."

The judge added: "No violation of a treatment plan, including the
commission of a new crime, goes unpunished."

Legal First

The judge noted the case marks the first time a drug court defendant has
asked for a hearing to be held behind closed doors.

The case, pitting privacy rights against a long-standing tradition of open
access to courts, has caught the attention of legal experts and drug
rehabilitation experts nationwide.

Bush, 25, is undergoing court-ordered drug treatment at Center for Drug
Free Living following her arrest in Tallahassee in January on a charge that
she tried to get the drug Xanax with a forged prescription. Last month,
according to Orlando police reports, a fellow patient reported Bush to
police, saying she had crack cocaine.

After initially telling police they had found crack cocaine in Bush's shoe,
center staffers refused to cooperate with the police investigation, which
could have led to new charges against the governor's daughter. The center
said it would deal with the incident through Judge Whitehead's drug court,
as it did in July when Noelle was caught with a prescription medicine.
Whitehead jailed Bush for three days following that incident.

The treatment center's action kicked off a legal controversy that has
delayed for weeks what is usually quick action by Whitehead. After the
center refused to sign a sworn statement about the incident, prosecutors
asked the chief judge to order center workers to cooperate.

Chief Judge Belvin Perry ruled that federal privacy regulations, coupled
with a state law designed to foster a different approach to drug treatment,
make an exception that bars police enforcement of some drug possession
infractions committed by people undergoing drug treatment.

Prosecutors appealed, and also criticized Perry's ruling, saying it would
create drug prosecution "immunity zones."

Challenge

Before Whitehead could schedule a drug court hearing on the crack
allegation, Bush's lawyer, Peter Antonacci, asked Whitehead to close the
proceeding to the public. Antonacci was not available for comment after the
ruling Tuesday.

His motion to hold the hearing behind closed doors was challenged by the
Orlando Sentinel and its sister paper, the Sun-Sentinel.

"The reason we have criminal courts open is so the public can have
confidence in our justice system," Jon Kaney, an attorney for the
newspapers, said Tuesday. "Don't ask the public to trust government when it
goes behind closed doors."

The governor, in a visit to Miami Tuesday afternoon, said he understood the
judge's reasoning.

"The judge had to make that determination. All I can tell you is that it's
a lot harder to deal with drug addiction with these big lights," he said,
pointing to the television cameras. "But it's his court. The good news is
that, frankly, cameras and reporters aren't as interested in the other
people in the court, so they have some degree of privacy to be able to cope
with their addiction, and I'm happy about that. I just wish my daughter
would be given the same treatment."