Noelle Bush is released from jail

Sending Jeb Bush's daughter back to drug treatment, a judge tells her, ''We want to be sure you are going in the right direction.''

By LUCY MORGAN, Times Tallahassee Bureau Chief

© St. Petersburg Times
published July 20, 2002

TALLAHASSEE -- Noelle Bush, daughter of Gov. Jeb Bush, was released from jail Friday and allowed to return to an Orlando drug treatment program where she has been living since her arrest earlier this year.

Flanked by her older brother, George P. Bush, and Tallahassee lawyer Peter Antonacci, Noelle Bush, 24, listened quietly as Circuit Judge Reginald Whitehead said he hoped she had learned a lesson after spending three days in jail.

He told her she would return to the treatment center and continue seeing him in court every two weeks.

"We want to be sure you are going in the right direction," Whitehead said during the brief hearing, carried live on CNN. He urged her to "feel free" to discuss any problems or concerns with him during the court appearances, which are routine in drug courts across the state.

She declined the opportunity to discuss her problems Friday, but thanked the judge before hugging her brother and being led out of the courtroom by a bailiff.

The judge sent the governor's only daughter to the Orange County Jail on Wednesday after she was caught taking some pills from a nurse's station at the treatment center. The pills were not identified, but officials at the center said urine screens indicated she had not taken the drugs.

George P. Bush, 26, a law student who became a familiar figure in his uncle's 2000 presidential campaign, told reporters outside the courtroom that he was there "as her brother, to support her."

He said the family is using "tough love" and wants her to be aware that there are consequences for her actions.

"No recovery is ever pain-free or error-free," George P. said. "All we can do is hope for the best, but we'll also be realistic and support her every step of the way."

Noelle Bush went into the drug treatment program after being arrested in January in Tallahassee as she tried to use a fraudulent prescription at a Walgreens drug store. Like many other drug offenders, she must make frequent court appearances and successfully complete the treatment program before she is eligible to have the criminal charges dropped.

-- The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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