NOELLE BUSH'S ORLANDO COURT HEARING POSTPONED ORLANDO

A judge cancelled a Friday drug court hearing for Noelle Bush, the
governor's daughter, who police said was caught with crack cocaine at a
rehab center earlier this week.

The hearing was called off because clinic staffers are refusing to
cooperate with police, police and prosecutors said.

Noelle Bush, the president's niece, was to go before Circuit Judge Reginald
Whitehead to answer for what, if proven true, would be her second lapse
since entering The Center for Drug-Free Living in February.

But Friday morning, Whitehead issued an order delaying the hearing until
the Orlando Police Department finishes its investigation and turns over its
findings to the State Attorney's Office.

A 0.2-gram, or 0.007 ounce, rock of crack was found in Bush's shoe Monday
evening, police reported. However, she wasn't arrested because officers
couldn't obtain sworn statements from staffers at the center.

The State Attorney's Office issued subpoenas to four staffers Thursday,
spokeswoman Lisa Roberson said.

''The Orlando Police Department feels they're not getting the cooperation
they need,'' Roberson said. "They can't rule one way or another without
speaking to the workers.''

Roberson said it is up to the clinic whether the staffers will cooperate.
If the clinic fights the subpoenas, then it can seek a quash order from the
court system.

A spokeswoman for the center, Joan M. Ballard, did not immediately return a
message Friday. Bush's attorney in Orlando, Dean Cannon, also did not
return a call.

A clinic patient had called police on Monday, but staffers tried to
persuade responding officers to let the center follow its standard policy
of handling the matter internally. One staffer even tore up a sworn
statement she had written for police. An officer retrieved the torn
document from a trash can and tagged it as evidence, but police didn't
reveal what it said.

''We have not dealt with a situation where its necessary for us to go to
the steps that we have,'' police spokesman Sgt. Orlando Rolon said.

Bush is in a court-ordered rehabilitation program because she was arrested
in January at a Tallahassee pharmacy drive-through window while allegedly
trying to buy the anti-anxiety drug Xanax with a fraudulent prescription.

She was admitted to the treatment center a month later, with the
possibility charges would be dropped if she completed the program.

But in July, she was found to be in contempt of court after being caught
carrying pills which belonged to a treatment center worker and had been
taken from a cabinet. For that lapse, Whitehead punished her with three
days in jail.

While it remains unclear whether the crack was Bush's, her father said
Thursday that she has tested negative for any drug use.

''It is heartbreaking,'' Jeb Bush said. "Drug addiction is not an easy
thing, and when you're having to do it with the glare of public light
shining on you, it makes it extraordinarily even more difficult.''