DRUG COUNSELORS DECLINING TO GIVE EVIDENCE AGAINST GOV. BUSH'S DAUGHTER

ORLANDO - A court hearing was postponed Friday for Gov. Jeb Bush's
daughter, whom police said was caught with crack cocaine at a drug
rehabilitation center earlier this week, because clinic staffers are
refusing to cooperate with investigators.

Noelle Bush, the president's niece, was to go before Circuit Judge
Reginald Whitehead at 2 p.m. Friday 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 Orlando police finishes their investigation and turns over the
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 could not 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 it's 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.''