Texas teen fighting efforts by police to remove bullet from head

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Texas teen fighting efforts by police to remove bullet from head

Prosecutors say slug is evidence that he tried to shoot businessman

after robbery.

By A. Lozano

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Friday, December 22, 2006

PORT ARTHUR — In the middle of Bush's forehead, two inches

above his eyes, lies the evidence that prosecutors say could send the

teenager to prison for attempted murder: a 9 mm bullet, lodged just

under the skin.

Prosecutors say it will prove that Bush, 17, tried to kill the owner

of a used car lot after a robbery in July. And they have obtained a

search warrant to extract the slug.

But Bush and his lawyer are fighting the removal, in a legal and

medical oddity that raises questions about patient privacy and how far

the government can go to solve crimes without running afoul of the

constitutional protection against unreasonable searches and seizures.

" It's unfortunate this arguably important piece of evidence is in a

place where it can't be easily retrieved, " said Seth Chandler, a

professor at the University of Houston Law Center. " You have to

balance our desire to convict the guilty against the government not

poking around our bodies on a supposition. "

Investigators say that Bush was part of a group of gang members who

broke into a used car lot and tried to steal vehicles. According to

police, Bush tried to shoot lot owner Alan Olive. When Olive returned

fire, police said, a bullet struck the teenager and burrowed into the

soft tissue of his forehead.

Prosecutor Ramon said gang members who took part in the

robbery identified Bush as one of those involved. When he was

questioned about a week later, Bush admitted to taking part in the

robbery but not to the shooting, police said.

" The officers noticed the guy looks like hell. One of his eyes is

black, and he has a big old knot on his forehead, " said. " He

tells police he got hurt playing basketball. "

A few days later, Bush went to the hospital and told doctors he had

been hit by a stray bullet as he sat on a couch in an apartment.

" Officers started putting events together, " said.

A judge took the unusual step of issuing a search warrant to retrieve

the bullet from Bush's head in October. But a Beaumont doctor

determined that small pieces of bone were growing around the slug, and

he did not have the proper tools in the emergency room to extract it.

The doctor said that removal would require surgery under general

anesthesia and that no operating rooms were available.

Police then obtained a second search warrant and scheduled the

operation for last week at the University of Texas Medical Branch

hospital in Galveston. It was postponed again, however, after the

hospital decided not to participate for reasons it would not discuss.

Prosecutors said they continue to look for a doctor or hospital

willing to remove the bullet.

All sides agree that removing the bullet would not be

life-threatening. But Bush's family and attorney say it would be a

violation of the teenager's civil rights and would set a dangerous

precedent.

" When the medical profession divorces itself from its own

responsibility and makes itself an arm of the state, it's a dangerous

path, " said Rife Kimler, Bush's lawyer.

Olive told police that after officers had left the scene of the

robbery and he began cleaning up, a man appeared in a nearby alley and

threatened to kill him if he helped authorities in their

investigation. The man fired at Olive, he said, and a shootout

followed.

" I just can't believe I missed him at that distance, " Olive, a

competitive pistol shooter, said in court papers. Olive told

authorities he never saw the man's face in the dark alley.

Bush is in jail on charges related to the robbery but not the shooting.

His mother, Tammie Bush, disputed allegations that her son is in a gang.

" We know he's not a criminal, " she said. " He's a good kid. "

Dr. Arthur Caplan, director of the Center for Bioethics at the

University of Pennsylvania, predicted that Bush's rights as a patient

will trump the state's desire to get the bullet and said authorities

might have a hard time finding someone willing to extract the slug.

" It truly is a moral quandary, " Caplan said. " Doctors are caught

between wanting to help solve crimes and their responsibility to

patients' rights to refuse a procedure. "