cannabisnews.com: Noelle Bush Case Sparks Legal Test





Noelle Bush Case Sparks Legal Test
Posted by CN Staff on September 23, 2002 at 11:10:57 PT
By Peter Wallsten
Source: Miami Herald 
First there was a frantic call to police claiming that the ''princess,'' Noelle Bush, had been caught at her drug rehabilitation center with crack cocaine, that she had been caught repeatedly and never punished ``because of who she is.''Then, as a police officer watched helplessly, the employee who found the drug on the governor's daughter shredded her sworn statement, protecting Bush from certain arrest and more humiliation.
Noelle Bush's latest run-in with the law Sept. 9 had all the makings of another titillating tabloid tale featuring a member of America's most powerful family.But, eight months after Gov. Jeb Bush begged for the public to respect his daughter's privacy as she grappled with a longtime addiction, Noelle has emerged as the central player in a legal drama more befitting the pages of a law review than The National Enquirer.In an Orlando courtroom, a judge will decide this week whether employees of the drug treatment center will have to testify against Bush and help prosecutors put her in prison on felony charges of possessing crack cocaine.The case, lawyers on both sides say, marks the first time a judge has been asked whether federal rules guaranteeing confidentiality for drug rehab patients apply when a patient is caught breaking the law during treatment.The resolution, they say, has serious implications for the decades-old tension between those who want to prosecute offenders and those who want to treat them. That tension has long defined a national war on drugs waged in part by Noelle Bush's own family, from her grandfather, the former vice president and president; to her uncle, the current president; to her father, the Florida governor.Underlying the case is another simmering question that may never be answered but could haunt the governor as he runs for reelection: Is Noelle Bush enjoying favored treatment? Or, as her lawyer maintains, is she being targeted because she is American ``royalty''?Police and prosecutors say this is the first time that authorities have been called with a complaint regarding a drug treatment center patient possessing illegal drugs. Officials at the Center for Drug-Free Living wouldn't say whether Bush has been caught before with cocaine, citing confidentiality, but said that she has not been treated any differently than any other patient.''Unfortunately,'' said her lawyer, Peter Antonacci, ``the policy debate of treatment versus incarceration is being worked out with a famous person in the middle.''Prosecutors and police officials said that Bush's fame has nothing to do with their desire to pursue charges in her case.Rather, said Assistant State Attorney Jeff Ashton, authorities know only that crack cocaine was discovered in Bush's shoe, and they have no witness testimony to back up the case in court.''Our office is making a very deliberate effort not to treat her differently, but to do what we would do in the same situation with someone else,'' Ashton said. ``The problem is we've never had a situation like this before.''Bush has been undergoing treatment at the Center for Drug-Free Living since she was arrested in Tallahassee in January after attempting to purchase the antianxiety drug Xanax with a fraudulent prescription.Her treatment is being supervised by a drug court program designed to help first-time offenders recover from addiction and return to society with a clean record.So far, Bush's road to recovery has been rocky.In July, Judge Reginald Whitehead put her in jail for 48 hours when she was caught with a prescription drug that belonged to an employee. FAVORITISM ALLEGED Then, on Sept. 9, police received an anonymous call from a fellow patient at the treatment center that the governor's daughter had been caught with crack cocaine.''She does this all the time and she gets out of it because she's the governor's daughter,'' the caller said. ``But we're sick of it here 'cause we have to do what's right, but she gets treated like some kind of princess. We're just trying to get our lives together, and this girl's bringing drugs on property.''The police arrived at the center -- a one-story compound enclosed by a six-foot fence, located on a dead-end street in a run-down neighborhood -- and were told by center employees that they had found a 0.2-gram rock of crack cocaine in Bush's shoe.Center employee Julia Elias, who had found the drug, initially offered a written statement to the police. But a supervisor ordered Elias not to cooperate with investigators, and Elias destroyed the statement.''That's the first time to my knowledge that that's happened,'' said Orlando police Capt. Robert Gregory, the head of the department's drug enforcement division. ``We were surprised with their decision just not to cooperate with us.''That episode has now set the stage for a potentially landmark legal battle.The Orange-Osceola state attorney's office has issued subpoenas for the employees at the Center for Drug-Free Living who were involved in discovering the crack.But the center's lawyers are fighting the subpoenas, citing a little-known federal confidentiality regulation that they say prevents the staff from testifying against a patient. RULING EXPECTED An Orlando judge heard arguments in an unusual closed-door hearing last week, and is expected to render his ruling as early as today.If the employees are forced to testify, said center lawyer Carlos Burruezo, ``the implication will be that therapists, the people who are supposed to help the patients recover from their addictions, will be forced to comply with law enforcement if the police think that a crime has been committed.''Burruezo said the center's treatment of Bush is no different than for any other patient, and that the policy when illegal drugs are found has always been to protect the patient's privacy from the authorities.He said the policy requires that the police be called, but only for information about disposing the drugs. The center therapists never reveal which patient was caught.''The police will then decide if they should come out, or they will tell the center to discard [the substance], to flush it down the toilet,'' Burruezo said.''The [police] don't open a file,'' he added. ``They don't do anything to memorialize the incident.''According to police records, authorities were called to the center for a drug violation just once in the past two years -- on Sept. 5 -- for a male suspect at the back door allegedly trying to sell drugs to people entering the building.There is no record of police being called for violations involving patients other than Bush.Federal regulations, according to court papers filed Friday on behalf of the center, allow treatment professionals to cooperate with law enforcement when crimes are committed on the center premises, but do not require such cooperation unless the state can prove ''good cause'' and get a court order. RELAPSE COMMON Burruezo said that relapse is common when patients undergo treatment, and that the center's policy is to deal with it through more intensive therapy and even penalties. Patients such as Bush, whose treatment is supervised by a drug court, can be punished by a judge with jail time, or even tossed out of the program and forced to face felony charges in criminal court.Bush is scheduled to face Judge Whitehead again Friday.Under the drug court program, she is tested for drugs weekly and the judge receives regular status reports, said her lawyer, Antonacci. Bush has tested negative every time, he said.The allegation of favorable treatment made by the anonymous tipster -- and last week by nationally syndicated columnists Clarence Page and Arianna Huffington -- is misplaced, Burruezo said.''The Center for Drug-Free Living's position would be the same if it were your daughter or my daughter,'' he said.Antonacci asserted that his client is embroiled in the legal battle simply because she is famous.''You have law enforcement overreacting to an allegation because they're afraid of receiving criticism of favorable treatment of a famous person,'' he said. ``They reacted in this case to her because of who she is. If it were anyone else, they would have turned it over to the drug treatment community.''Given the difficult conditions of her rehabilitation center, Antonacci said, it is hard to argue that Bush has been treated favorably.Still, prosecutors say that possessing illegal drugs is against the law no matter where one lives -- even if home is a drug treatment center.''To me, the law is crystal clear and unambiguous,'' Ashton said. ``Possession of crack cocaine is a felony.''Court papers filed by the state attorney's office argue that the federal regulations cited by the center's attorneys do not protect patients' confidentiality when crimes occur on the center's property.''If what they are arguing is right, then federal law creates a zone of immunity where you can possess drugs with impunity,'' Ashton added. ``We don't want access to the details of her therapy or treatment. We simply want to know how the cocaine got there, who the dealer is..''The final call could be made by the Florida Supreme Court, where two of seven justices were appointed by Noelle's father. BAD TIMING For Jeb Bush, the timing of his daughter's troubles could not be worse.He is engaged in an increasingly heated reelection campaign that has already been characterized by negative attacks.A spokesman for his rival, Democrat Bill McBride, said last week that Noelle's troubles are a ''private matter'' and will not be a factor in the campaign.But some critics of the governor's drug policies are using his daughter's foibles as a peg to accuse Bush of hypocrisy.Page and Huffington used columns last week to question how the governor could oppose a proposed state constitutional amendment that would have guaranteed treatment for all first-time offenders as an alternative to jail.''The tragedy is that there are thousands of other Noelles out there whose fathers and families are not well-off or well-connected, and they don't have the opportunity to stay in nice treatment centers,'' Page wrote. ``Instead, they spend their nights in jail.''Huffington wrote that ``Jeb's wildly inconsistent attitude on the issue -- treatment and privacy for his daughter, incarceration and public humiliation for everyone else -- is part and parcel of the galling hypocrisy that infects America's insane drug war on every level.'' BUSH AIDE RESPONDS The charges were quickly disputed in a written response from Bush's drug czar, Jim McDonough, who argued that Bush has a compassionate approach to drug policy that is ``wisely balanced with prevention, treatment and law enforcement.''McDonough said that state spending on drug treatment and prevention has increased 60 percent since Bush took office, that the number of Floridians in treatment has increased by 141,000, and that youth treatment has increased by 67 percent.The response by McDonough was remarkable not in his defense of the governor's policies, but in his tacit acknowledgement that Noelle's problems have become a legitimate matter for public policy debate.''Wise in his understanding of the destructiveness of drug abuse and how it affects Florida, the governor has implemented intelligent and compassionate approaches to this horror,'' McDonough wrote. ``And deeply loving of his daughter, he has allowed her to have an equal chance -- along with thousands of others -- to fight back from drug addiction in the fold of those policies.''Note: Judge to decide if patient privacy rules apply when law may have been broken.Newshawk: Nicholas Thimmesch - http://www.norml.org/Source: Miami Herald (FL)Author: Peter WallstenPublished: Monday, September 23, 2002 Copyright: 2002 The Miami HeraldContact: heralded herald.comWebsite: http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/ Related Articles:Judge Closes Hearing in Noelle Bush Casehttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14167.shtmlDrug War Hits Home for Bush Brothershttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14129.shtmlA Crack House Divided - Arianna Huffingtonhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14127.shtmlDrug-Treatment Staff Subpoenaedhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14114.shtml
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Comment #17 posted by Had Enough on September 23, 2002 at 19:27:47 PT
Just a Thought
Just a ThoughtIt seems that when ever an official’s offspring is caught with controlled substances they always say, “It’s a private matter. Is this coincidence ? Rehearsed damage control? Or do they really feel that is a private thing ? Interesting.Link belowhttp://query.nytimes.com/search/full-page?res=9C0CE6D9123DF934A2575BC0A9649C8B63
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Comment #16 posted by Had Enough on September 23, 2002 at 18:17:11 PT
Check it Out See For Yourself
The 18-year-old son of Miami-Dade County's top prosecutor, State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle, was arrested on a charge of marijuana possession. A spokesman for the state attorney's office said the arrest was a ''private matter.''
 
Entire artical in link belowhttp://query.nytimes.com/search/full-page?res=9C0CE6D9123DF934A2575BC0A9649C8B63
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Comment #15 posted by WolfgangWylde on September 23, 2002 at 17:39:00 PT
Ahhh...but herein lies the answer for California
Geez, who knew? Drug Treatment Centers are exempt from Federal Drug Laws. Now California just has to incorporate as one big rehab center and tell the Feds to get lost. 
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Comment #14 posted by MDG on September 23, 2002 at 17:21:51 PT
If it is really pushed by prosecutors...
I can imagine some strange things happening. First, let's imagine she is convicted and sentenced to some mandatory minimum. Will her father issue a pardon, removing all doubt about hypocrisy, injustice and lack of equal protection under the law? Or, will Noelle be "sent up the river" in order for the family to perpetuate the facade upon which the Drug War is based. What would happen if she were convicted and sentenced, but it were too late because Jeb happened to lose the election? Would her uncle pardon her? What kind of national outrage would this cause? (Probably none, according to "the news".)On the other hand, what if it comes to the point where the medical practitioners are forced to testify against her.  Might the case, ultimately, end up in the Supreme Court? (This is only if she isn't convicted, since a pardon is practically guaranteed ). What could the Supreme Court possibly say, insofar as it is so happy to drug test children who have never even been suspected of wrongdoing, let alone an adult who has multiple "strikes" against her? Would they turn their backs on the political elite, and stick with the Drug War? Maybe they'd just stick with a narrow ruling regarding the right of doctors to confidentiality, which might adversely affect the ability to prosecute drug offenders.Who knows? There are many possibilities for this case and how it will affect the Drug War. I'm guessing she'll be found in violation of probation/treatment availability, and will receive a few days in the clink...Bush(es) will say, "Justice has been served. Go back to your lives (until we catch you )". The sad thing is that she's an addict and others will not receive the same "justice" she receives, no matter what.
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Comment #13 posted by malleus on September 23, 2002 at 15:31:24 PT
But the best is saved for last
Because we have arch-Drug Warrior McDonough, Mr. Fungus himself, the guy who wanted to turn something loose that kills food crops, practically falling all over himself in unctuous verbal fellating of the Bush Klan. Yes, we know who gets coddled and cossetted, and why. And we know who's mouth, when he's not sucking on something, is busy blowing BS.
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Comment #12 posted by malleus on September 23, 2002 at 15:21:51 PT
I wondered about that, too
The thing is, why did she go for so long without having been reprimanded when there was common knowledge of her usage amongst the inmates? How many 'byes' was she given? As opposed to some poor Latina or Black, who would have beeen dragged before the magistrate so fast the shoes would have left scortch marks on the carpet and you'd need a fire extinguisher for their toes? You can bet the Bush Klan had the staff keep an eye out for Noelle, fully expecting her to pull this kind of thing. And there it is. So the question remains: jail? Or not? Watch, it'll be 'not'. That kind always walks away without a scratch, while all around her crash and burn.Just like all the Bush Klan.
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Comment #11 posted by DANA on September 23, 2002 at 14:57:16 PT
Thanx Had Enough
...also,as I was thinking about this fiasco,,,...I began to imagine how the bush political empire machine must have kicked into gear the moment this nasty little story hit the news.I'll bet you,that there were some very important,high level phone calls made,from the damage control experts in the nepotistic upper echelons of the shrub racket!
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Comment #10 posted by Had Enough on September 23, 2002 at 14:42:50 PT
Good Eye Dana
Good Eye DanaA first realease of this news some reported it at 2 grams not .2 grams
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Comment #9 posted by DANA on September 23, 2002 at 14:34:54 PT
>>?..Hmmmm...?
..."
      The police arrived at the center -- a one-story compound enclosed by a six-foot fence, located on a dead-end street in
      a run-down neighborhood --and were told by center employees that they had found a 0.2-gram rock of crack cocaine
      in Bush's shoe."____________________________Now ,,it seems to me that there is something fishy about this "0.2-gram rock"!....Are we to assume that the "center employees",had a scale on the premises,and took the time to check the weight of this tiny nugget??? 
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Comment #8 posted by DdC on September 23, 2002 at 14:28:48 PT
Shamanism and the Drug Propaganda: Idolatry 
Excerpted...Both Justinian's Corpus of laws and Digest of opinions go on at length 'Concerning Torture' and 'On Punishments.' They became the model of the Malleus Maleficarum, the official handbook of torture of the medieval Inquisition. The most common evidentiary bust of the medieval Inquisition was the possession of prohibited substances - the traditional medico-sacramental herbs of the midwives. The forced drinking of boiling oil or molten lead, or death by burning alive, replaced the traditional Roman crucifixion and branding on the face - far more Christian, obviously. As honestiores themselves, the churchmen, even if they broke the law, weren't subject to torture, but the testimony of the vast bulk of the population, humiliores, wasn't valid in capital cases, or against honestiores, without torture. This 'legal principle' degenerated into indiscriminate torture for many minor offenses. The methods employed included the rack, which tore the joints apart, the lignum, which pulled the legs apart, the ungulae, which ripped the flesh, the mala mansio, a metal body-suit, the bodily insertion of red hot metal, slow strangulation, and, as the Digest put it, "castigation with rods, scourging, and blows with chains." The only thing Christian martyrdom taught Imperial Christianity was methodology. "We call heretic everyone who is not devoted to the Catholic Church and to our Orthodox and holy Faith." The Inquisition had begun. Full article...Shamanism and the Drug Propaganda: Idolatry 
http://www.drugwar.com/images/idolat2a.jpgBush Religious drug treatment in Texas  
http://pub3.ezboard.com/fendingcannabisprohibitionprohibitionistwodjunkies.showMessage?topicID=13.topicDEA Shielded Tainted Informant
http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread10347.shtml
D.E.A.th Deceptions
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Comment #7 posted by i420 on September 23, 2002 at 13:45:12 PT
My,My,My......
 Then, as a police officer watched helplessly, the employee who found the drug on the governor's
   daughter shredded her sworn statement, protecting Bush from certain arrest and more humiliation. Helplessly????? We would have been arrested and charged with "obstructing justice" or some other similar trumped up charge...Americasucks.com
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Comment #6 posted by malleus on September 23, 2002 at 13:42:46 PT
"Royalty"! Grrrrrrrr!
The Bushes have always had affected a patrician air, but the reality is they are and have never been more than grubby little bourgoisie , grasping at money because they felt it could buy them the class and respect they feel they deserve but few would tender them freely. They are nothing but tools, and their handlers are getting as much mileage from them as possible, before they are discarded.Any family that would willingly have business dealings with Hitler, Saddam and Osama carries a stain no amount of detergent can wash away."Royalty" my hairy tochis .
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Comment #5 posted by p4me on September 23, 2002 at 13:17:51 PT
Exuse this omission in comment 4
Now what kind of idiot president would say on this Monday, "We need an energy bill that encourages consumption." He really said it according to the last line of this Salon article: http://www.salon.com/news/wire/2002/09/23/jersey_senate/index.htmlLeader of the free world my a$$. Just a fascist dummy that cannot remember the lines his ventriloquist wrote for him.1,2
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Comment #4 posted by p4me on September 23, 2002 at 12:54:32 PT
The police lack credibility
How can you believe anything the police say? Anyone else would have been given a drug test on the spot, led to the jail for violating probation, and forgotten.And she is no royalty and neither is her savings&loan scandaled father or clown-for-a-president uncle. They are all hypocrites and national embarassments that could use a little prison time themselves. Why hasn't Busch produced the tax returns for the year his quarter of a million dollar debt was forgiven? Then again why wasn't there an independent investigation of his reporting practices and business dealings that cleared his not-so-good name? Maybe because that result was impossible in a not-fixed investigation and would be cause for his fourth arrest. And the Republican sheep talk of his character. All his money and he has to steal a Christmas wreath from a hotel. Character my a$$.1,2
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Comment #3 posted by Sam Adams on September 23, 2002 at 12:13:44 PT
yeah DS
I can't understand all this fuss about evidence, etc. Why not just have the DA threaten Noelle with a 5-year minimum jail term for cocaine distribution and then force her to take a plea bargain for 1 year in jail? THAT would be equal treatment. 
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Comment #2 posted by Dark Star on September 23, 2002 at 11:59:47 PT
Losing Both Ways
No matter how this goes down, it will make look Jeb look bad, which he richly deserves for his hypocrisy.Every sentenced drug defendant should shout to the judge, "I want the same deal that Noelle got." When he doesn't receive that, then it puts the lie on "equal protection under the law."
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Comment #1 posted by DdC on September 23, 2002 at 11:51:12 PT
McDonought was running to take McCaffrey's place!
Overflowing prisons tell the truth of FL D.E.A.th conserving compassion.Even though the Florida Supreme Court agreed that the medical use of marijuana is a valid defense, patients are not finding relief in Florida's courts. Law enforcement, prosecutors and jurists are still having a hard time understanding that marijuana is a safe, natural, and effective medicine for people like Joe Tacl.I LOST MY FREEDOM and can't find it anywhere! Linx 
http://pub3.ezboard.com/fendingcannabisprohibitionlinx.showMessage?topicID=22.topicNote: At the time of writing there are several medical marijuana cases pending in FL including people with MS, and chronic pain. If you or anyone you know is arrested on marijuana charges please contact the free legal referral service run by the Cannabis Action Network at 1334 S.E. 22nd
Ave, Gainesville, FL 32641 PH (352) 378-9836Shared by Kay Lee 909 Virginia St. #B, Key West, FL 33040
305-293-1865Wise in his understanding of the destructiveness of drug abuse and how it affects Florida, the governor has implemented intelligent and compassionate approaches to this horror,'' McDonough wrote. ``And deeply loving of his daughter, he has allowed her to have an equal chance -- along with thousands of others -- to fight back from drug addiction in the fold of those policies.''STOP McDonought from using Monsanto's Terminator seeds
http://www.rafi.orgThe Chemical Manipulation of Human Consciousness
http://www.trufax.org/menu/chem.htmlRonald McDonought
http://www.cannabinoid.com/boards/politics/media/34/34919.gifMoraleze
http://www.cannabinoid.com/wwwboard/politics/binaries/30/30414.jpgJesus vs McDonought
http://www.cannabinoid.com/wwwboard/politics/binaries/26/26252.gif
D.E.A.th Deceptions
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