PRESIDENT'S NIECE FREED FROM JAIL, BACK IN REHAB

ORLANDO, Fla. -(AP)- Noelle Bush, Gov. Jeb Bush's 24-year-old daughter, was
released from jail and allowed to return to a drug-rehabilitation center
Friday, two days after being locked up for allegedly taking prescription
pills from a nurse's cabinet.

``I would not allow you to go back to the facility if I didn't think you
could do the program,'' Circuit Judge Reginald Whitehead said in giving the
president's niece a second chance in rehab. ``You're very intelligent, you
have the support there. You just need to work on the decisions that you're
making, and I know that you can do it.''

Bush, accompanied by her brother, George P. Bush, and her attorney, said
nothing in her defense during the two-minute hearing.

``She's definitely remorseful with what happened,'' George P. Bush said
afterward. ``She recognizes her errors, that she's not perfect and that she
made a mistake.''

Bush was jailed Wednesday for contempt of court for violating the terms of
her court-ordered drug-treatment program. She was accused of taking
prescription pills from a cabinet in a nurse's office at the rehab center
where she was being treated.

Whitehead sent Bush to jail for three days.

Bush's attorney, Pete Antonacci, said she tested negative for having
swallowed the pills. He said he did not know what kind of pills they were.

Bush was arrested in January at a pharmacy drive-through window after
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 that charges would be dropped if she completed the program.

The governor was allowed to visit his daughter in jail for several minutes
Wednesday, even though visits are usually limited to weekends.