Kathy Bush to Begin Prison Term
Mother's lawyer makes late push
By Sara Olkon
Originally published in The Miami Herald, June 7, 2002
With Kathy Bush set to go to prison today for intentionally making her daughter Jennifer sick, her attorney will make a last-ditch effort to reduce the time she'll spend behind bars.
Bush, who was sentenced three years ago by a Broward jury, has been ordered to spend five years in prison. She was convicted of tampering with her daughter's feeding tube and giving her excessive medications. The child was sick for nearly a decade, undergoing 40 unnecessary operations and 200 hospitalizations.
Today, Jennifer lives in Illinois with a foster family, her privacy closely guarded. Kathy has lived in Peachtree, Ga., with her husband for over a year, out on $50,000 bond while the case wound its way through appeal, said attorney Robert Buschel.
Despite the conviction, Buschel maintains his client's innocence. He will argue that she should serve two and a half years in prison, rather than five. She also is sentenced to five years' probation after her release.
"Prison doesn't teach Kathy anything," he said of Bush, who also was convicted of organized fraud for collecting more than $140,000 in Medicaid benefits to pay her daughter's medical bills. "This was about Kathy Bush trying to help her sick daughter. What is the point of sending her to jail?"
He said the child was afflicted with a seizure and a gastrointestinal disorder.
But authorities said it was her mother, not Jennifer, who was ill. They say she suffered from Munchausen's Syndrome by Proxy, a rare disorder in which adult caretakers deliberately harm their children to gain sympathy and attention for themselves.
Buschel argues that Kathy Bush has been a model citizen for the six years she's been out on bond and was instrumental in not having Jennifer testify during her four-month trial. He also pointed out that she didn't put her daughter through a custody battle, instead permanently giving up her parental rights to the girl last year as part of a deal with the state Department of Children & Families.
Her husband, Craig Bush, maintains his wife's innocence and has visitation rights with their now 15-year-old daughter.
Before Kathy Bush's 1996 arrest, doctors could never determine exactly what was wrong with the girl. Kathy Bush pleaded for help for Jennifer and turned the girl into a cause celebre, attracting attention from sports heroes and meeting Hillary Rodham-Clinton as the former first lady was considering healthcare review.
Since her move to Georgia, Bush has done some work for a construction firm, Buschel said.
Her husband and two sons maintain her innocence, and Kathy Bush feels "dreadful" without her daughter, Buschel said.
"Every holiday, every birthday, every family event, [Jennifer] is very missed," Buschel said. "When a child is missing, it's horrible."
