NO JAIL TIME FOR GOVERNOR'S DAUGHTER

TALLAHASSEE -- The state attorney's office won't seek jail time for
the daughter of Gov. Jeb Bush, after she was arrested this week on a
felony charge of prescription drug fraud, State Attorney Willie Meggs
said on Friday.

Instead of the maximum five years in prison, Noelle Bush, 24, is
facing mandatory attendance at a Leon County drug court for up to 18
months, Meggs said.

Noelle Bush was arrested early Tuesday after allegedly posing as a
doctor in an attempt to purchase the anxiety drug Xanax, Tallahassee
police said.

Florida law prohibits drug dealers or anyone with prior felony arrests
from getting into the program. Drug court requires random drug tests
and hearings twice a month before a judge.

Noelle Bush's attorney, Peter Antonacci, has yet to agree to drug
court, Meggs said. Antonacci did not return repeated phone calls this
week.

Meggs said his office won't investigate whether Noelle Bush violated
the terms of her release from jail Tuesday.

"That's something the media is interested in, but we're not," Meggs
said.

A pretrial release program found that she had no criminal history
before allowing her to leave without paying a $1,000 bond.

But reports of a 1995 Arizona misdemeanor shoplifting offense
involving a woman with the same name and birthdate surfaced this week.
A student who attended a Sedona, Ariz., boarding school with Noelle
Bush said she was the woman involved.

The case concerned the theft of underwear from a JCPenney store and
was resolved with the payment of a $305 fine.

Also, there were reports of Noelle Bush's spotty driving record. She
has been involved in four crashes in Leon County between 1999 and 2001
and has been ticketed more than a dozen times since 1995, records show.

According to published reports, she became belligerent after a
September 2000 traffic crash that she caused by colliding with a truck.

She later told police that she was on prescription pills, the report
stated.

State Attorney Meggs' stance on Noelle Bush's past is at odds with
what the supervisor of the pretrial program said earlier this week.

Wanda Hunter, the supervisor, said that inmates are questioned about
their criminal pasts and that a national, state, and local crime
records search is conducted before release is considered.

In Noelle Bush's case, the searches showed no prior arrests, Hunter
said.

If Noelle Bush had been asked about her criminal background and lied,
that would disqualify her from the program and she may be forced to
pay the bond, Hunter said Wednesday.

She said she would look into the arrest because of the case's high
profile.

On Thursday, Jackie Cooper, a spokeswoman for Leon County, said she
would answer all questions regarding the program and that she would
check to see whether Noelle Bush had been asked any questions about
her criminal history.

On Friday, Cooper said Hunter won't look into the case because inmates
aren't asked about their criminal backgrounds.

Meggs said he doesn't care whether Noelle Bush was asked about her
criminal past.

"Did she pull a fraud on us?" he said. "No. Are we going to look into
it? No. I think she has enough problems to worry about."