Orlando, Fla. ? A judge ruled Monday that staff at the drug rehab center where Gov. Jeb Bush’s daughter is receiving treatment do not have to answer police questions about a piece of crack allegedly found in her shoe.

In a case closely watched by drug counselors around the country, Circuit Judge Belvin Perry ruled that the federal law protecting patients’ privacy outweighs the interest of police in pursuing a criminal investigation of 25-year-old Noelle Bush.

If the drug treatment counselors were forced to give testimony, then “all patients who suffer relapses could be hauled out of treatment programs and into criminal courts on the whim of a state prosecutor or police officers,” the judge wrote.

Prosecutor Jeff Ashton said he would appeal.

“If saying essentially to drug patients, ‘Go ahead. You can’t be prosecuted for using drugs at the center,’ I wonder if that’s valuable for their treatment?” Ashton said. “The court’s decision says we can’t even inquire about how a person got drugs.”

The state attorney’s office issued subpoenas for four staffers at the Center for Drug-Free Living in Orlando after police received a report from another patient on Sept. 9 that Bush had been found with cocaine in her shoe.

Workers at the Center for Drug-Free Living refused to cooperate, citing privacy concerns. One staff member wrote a statement for officers but ripped it up after a supervisor intervened.

No charges were brought against the governor’s daughter.

The governor said he was pleased with the ruling. “Our drug court system is based on the fact that the road to recovery is a rocky one,” Bush said. “If counselors are required to report every violation, then it makes treatment very difficult to work.”

Noelle Bush was put in a court-ordered rehabilitation program in February after she was arrested at a pharmacy drive-through window for allegedly trying to buy an anti-anxiety drug with a fraudulent prescription.

Florida’s drug courts allow addicts to seek supervised treatment rather than being tried in criminal court.