21 charges filed against Judge Busch
by Kim Isaza
kisaza@mdjonline.com
March 06, 2010 01:00 AM | 1497 views | 3 3 comments | 9 9 recommendations | email to a friend | print
Police have filed 21 charges against Woodstock Municipal Court Chief Judge Diane Busch related to a party at her Cobb County where 10 teenagers were cited for underage drinking.

She and Kathryn Middleton, who faces 20 charges stemming from the party, turned themselves in at the Cobb County Jail on Friday afternoon. All of the charges are misdemeanors, and both women quickly bonded out. Bond was set at $3,500 for each woman.

Ms. Busch and Ms. Middleton were each charged with 10 counts of furnishing alcoholic beverages to persons younger than 21; six counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor; and four counts of contributing to furnishing alcohol to persons younger than 21.

Ms. Busch, 47, who is also a Marietta attorney, was additionally charged with one count of obstruction of justice, for lying to a police officer about the whereabouts of one of the teenagers that night, according to the warrant.

Both women are to appear in court to answer the charges on May 7.

Jimmy Berry, who is representing Ms. Busch, did not return a call for comment on Friday afternoon, though he previously has said she was unaware the teenagers were drinking in her home.

Joel Pugh, the attorney for Ms. Middleton, said his client intends to plead not guilty to all charges.

"She's adamant that she didn't furnish any alcohol to minors," he said. "We're not happy she's been charged, but we are ready to go to court and get this behind us."

Ms. Middleton, 46, a real estate agent, is a friend and neighbor of Ms. Busch. She had attended the party for adults at Ms. Busch's home on the evening of Dec. 21, and was reportedly cleaning up when police arrived about 3 a.m. on Dec. 22.

Lalaine Briones, a staff attorney at the Prosecuting Attorneys Council in Georgia, has been brought in as a special prosecutor in the case. It was her recommendation that the charges be filed. Ms. Briones first met with Cobb Police two weeks ago to review their investigation, and she will continue as the prosecutor in these cases.

Ms. Busch's warrant, which was taken by Cobb Police Sgt. C. Dong, states she "was present at the time of the alcohol consumption and knew of the under aged drinking," and provided a location for teens younger than 21 "to gather where alcohol was both present and consumed by" the youths.

The warrant also accuses Ms. Busch of obstructing Officer S. T. Walton when he and the officers were at her home by "misrepresenting the present location of a juvenile, whom the officer was attempting to locate in order to obtain parental information for the purpose of requesting that the minor's parent collect him from the location, when the accused stated that the minor had left the location with his parents prior to the arrival of law enforcement, a statement Officer S.T. Walton knew to be false."

Maximum punishments for a conviction on each count of the various charges range from six months in jail and a fine of $300, to 12 months in jail and a fine of $1,000.

However, prosecutors said that first-time offenders usually are sentenced to probation and community service and fined about $400 for such a charge.

Misdemeanor cases are prosecuted in Cobb State Court. Solicitor General Barry Morgan's office usually prosecutes misdemeanors. He recused his office in this case and asked for an outside prosecutor because one of his assistant solicitors had attended the Christmas party for adults at the home earlier in the evening and could be called as a witness.

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Four teenagers older than 17 and six juveniles were given citations for underage drinking after police arrived at Ms. Busch's west Cobb home in the wee hours of Dec. 22.

The case against one of the "adult minors" was dismissed early last month as part of a diversion program, after he performed community service, paid a fine, received counseling and passed three drug tests.

Morgan's office re-filed the charge against another one of the four "adult minors" because the proper paperwork had not been filed in his case. That teenager, William Maxwell, is not eligible for the diversion program because his blood-alcohol limit at the time of the citation was .171.

Hearings in the cases of the two other "adult minors" are scheduled for mid-March. The status of the cases against the six juveniles is unclear, as juvenile court records are confidential.

Cobb Police were dispatched to the Marietta Country Club neighborhood, off Stilesboro Road in the early hours of Dec. 22 after a neighbor reported hearing what sounded like gunshots.

Upon investigating, police found popped balloons in Ms. Busch's driveway, and an officer knocked on the door of her Hazeltine Lane home. Another officer checking the back of the house could see beer bottles and cans on a ping-pong table and in the hands of "numerous young looking individuals," according to the police report.

An officer then encountered a youth on the home's deck and asked if there were any adults home and for him to summon them, according to the police report.

Ms. Middleton then appeared at the door and "appeared intoxicated," according to the police report. One of Ms. Middleton's children also was at the home.

"Officer Ryan asked if (Ms. Middleton) could get the homeowner and she responded by asking us why we were there," and officers explained about the report of gunshots, according to the report.

"I asked Ms. Middleton if she knew how old the individuals located in the basement were. Ms. Middleton stated that most of the kids went to the Walker School," the report states.

Ms. Middleton returned a few minutes later with Ms. Busch, the homeowner, "who also seemed to be very intoxicated," according to the report. "She seemed to not comprehend and continued to ask why we were there. Our presence was explained to her multiple times. ... Ms. Busch stated that she had hosted an adult party earlier and that when it was over she went to bed. She stated that some of the children who had come with their parents were supposed to stay the night."

Ms. Busch allowed police to enter her home, where they began talking to the teenagers, according to the police report.

"Ms. Busch advised she had just woken up and seemed to be agitated at what she observed in the basement, stating 'you damn kids,'" the report states.

"When Ms. Busch came down to the basement her speech was slurred," one officer noted in the report. "Ms. Busch was very unstable on her feet as she staggered toward us. Ms. Busch repeatedly asked why the police were present at her residence.

"Ms. Busch accompanied me while checking the upstairs portion of the residence where there were young children sleeping," the report states. "I located three additional underage subjects that had been drinking. One ... was hiding in a walk-in attic space. The other two subjects were found in a bedroom fully clothed and lying in a bed."

State Sen. John Wiles (R-Kennesaw) arrived at Ms. Busch's home while the police were talking to the teenagers in the basement and using Alco sensors to check for alcohol consumption, according to the police report.

Ms. Busch, who was recently reappointed as an associate municipal judge in Marietta and has filled in as a Cobb State Court judge in recent years, is an attorney in Wiles' law firm, Wiles & Wiles, in Marietta. Wiles also lives in the Marietta Country Club neighborhood.

According to the police report, Wiles "stated that he had come to assist Ms. Busch. Ms. Busch made it known that Mr. Wiles was a former Cobb County prosecutor and is (now) a state senator. Ms. Busch had also stated that she was a traffic court judge in Woodstock."

Wiles was not charged with any crime.

He recently released this statement: "I was there as a father picking up his son, and as an attorney who had a co-worker facing a difficult situation. I did not identify myself as a state senator; another adult did that. I also did not request any special treatment for my son, who was treated the same as every other child there. At the request of the police, I stayed to help contact parents of the other youths involved, and helped make sure that they all got home safely."
comments (3)
« Get out! wrote on Sunday, Mar 07 at 01:53 PM »
My goodness, remove her from the bench already. A judge that's above the law is a useless judge.
« Tax Payer wrote on Saturday, Mar 06 at 05:55 PM »
Does this mean that Mayor Henriques may hire a Cherokee County tax paying lawyer to be a municipal court judge for our city instead of a Cobb County tax paying lawyer?
« Alright! wrote on Saturday, Mar 06 at 10:24 AM »
Yay!