JUDGE RULES IN BUSH DAUGHTER CASE

Rehab Workers Don't Have To Testify Against Noelle, Judge
Says

ORLANDO - A judge ruled Monday that staff members at the drug rehab
center where Gov. Jeb Bush's daughter is receiving treatment do not
have to answer police questions about a piece of crack allegedly found
in her shoe.

Circuit Judge Belvin Perry ruled that federal law protecting a drug
treatment patient's privacy outweighed the interest of police officers
in a criminal investigation of drug possession.

If the drug treatment counselors were forced to give testimony, then
"all patients who suffer relapses could be hauled out of treatment
programs and into criminal courts on the whim of a state prosecutor or
police officers," the judge wrote.

Assistant State Attorney Jeff Ashton said his office would
appeal.

"If saying essentially to drug patients, 'Go ahead. You can't be
prosecuted for using drugs at the center,' I wonder if that's valuable
for their treatment?" Ashton said.

The state attorney's office issued subpoenas for four staffers at the
Center for Drug-Free Living in Orlando after police received a report
from another patient on Sept. 9 that 25-year-old Noelle Bush had been
found with cocaine in her shoe.

The governor, attending a campaign forum in Orlando for the
agriculture industry, said he was pleased with the decision.

"Our drug court system is based on the fact that the road to recovery
is a rocky one," Bush said. "If counselors are required to report
every violation, then it makes treatment very difficult to work."