Judge facing 21 misdemeanor charges resigns

By Alexis Stevens and Ty Tagami

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A judge accused of allowing underage drinking at her home has resigned her post, Marietta Mayor Steve Tumlin told the AJC.

Diane Busch, an attorney who served as a magistrate judge in Marietta and Woodstock, faces 10 counts of furnishing alcohol to those under 21, Officer Joe Hernandez with Cobb County police told the AJC. Busch faces additional charges for contributing to the delinquency of minors and obstruction, Hernandez said.

Altogether, she faces 21 misdemeanor charges stemming from a party held at her home near Kennesaw in December.

Busch turned herself last week, according to the Cobb County jail Web site. She was released after posting a $3,500 bond.

Mayor Tumlin said Sunday night that Busch resigned her associate judge's post Friday. "I think that was the best for everybody concerned," Tumlin said, adding that the looming charges would have been "a great distraction" for Tumlin and the magistrate court.

Tumlin said the Marietta City Council would likely accept the resignation at their Monday meeting.

A neighbor in the Marietta Country Club, Kathyrn Middleton, faces 20 misdemeanor counts related to the same incident, Hernandez said. She was also booked into jail Friday and released a short time later, on $3,500 bond.

Police were called to Busch’s house at 3 a.m. Dec. 22, hours after a Christmas party had ended, to investigate a report of gun shots, which turned out to be the sound of balloons bursting.

That was when the officers saw the teenagers drinking. Busch was asleep when the officers got to her house. Ten teens -- students at the Walker School -- were cited, four of them as adults because they are older than 17. The other six were treated as juvenile offenders.

Busch told police she would rather have the teens drinking in her home, rather than "out driving around," according to the police report. She has said the party was intended to be adults only.

Busch works in the law firm of state Sen. John Wiles, and Wiles apparently arrived at Busch's home to pick up his son while the police were at the scene. According to the police report, Wiles asked investigators at the scene not to issue a citation to one teen who had earned a baseball scholarship.

Busch initially continued to hear cases while under investigation, but then took a leave of absence. Tumlin said she only presided in court once since Dec. 22 and that "she needs to concentrate on working all of these things out."

Late last month, Cobb County solicitor Barry Morgan refiled charges against a 19-year-old accused of drinking at Busch's home. Busch had served as the attorney for William Maxwell, and suggested to an assistant solicitor that Maxwell be allowed to count baseball practice as punishment. That assistant solicitor has since resigned, and Maxwell's case has since been dismissed.