OPEN COURT MAY DETAIL A BUSH DRUG TREATMENT

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) -- 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 placed
the case on inactive status in the meantime.