MARIETTA - Cobb Police on Friday filed 21 charges against Woodstock municipal court judge and Marietta attorney Diane Busch relating to a Dec. 22 Christmas party at her upscale west Cobb home next to Marietta Country Club during which 10 Walker School teenagers were cited for underage drinking.

Cobb Police arrived at Busch's house at 3 a.m. after a neighbor reported hearing what sounded like gunshots. The teens had been popping balloons.

Busch, 47, who the Journal reported on Feb. 13 was under investigation by a special prosecutor, was charged with 10 counts of furnishing alcoholic beverages to persons under 21; six counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor; four counts of contributing to furnishing alcohol to persons under 21; and 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.

Police also charged Busch's friend and neighbor, 46-year-old real-estate agent Kathryn Middleton, with each count the judge faces, other than obstruction. Middleton had attended the party at Busch's home on the evening of Dec. 21, and was reportedly cleaning up when police arrived about 3 a.m. on Dec. 22.

All charges are misdemeanors.

State Senator John Wiles, a Kennesaw Republican, arrived at the party after the police did and was mentioned prominently in the police report. However, Wiles faces no charges.

Busch turned herself in around 5 p.m., according to the Cobb County jail Web site. Busch posted the $3,500 bond within an hour, and was released at 5:49 p.m.

Middleton also turned herself in Friday afternoon and her husband posted her $3,500 bond.

Both Busch and Middleton are to appear in court to answer the charges on May 7.

The case has taken some bizarre twists, including information from the Cobb Solicitor's Office that said Busch was representing one of the teens at the party and tried to persuade a Cobb state court judge to allow baseball practice time to serve as his community service work. A young assistant prosecutor gave out this information, recanted the baseball story a day later, adding he already had dismissed the case, and subsequently resigned.

Busch was initially representing the teen but turned the case over.

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

Joel Pugh, the attorney for 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."

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

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

The warrant also accuses 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 $300 fine, to 12 months in jail and a $1,000 fine.

However, prosecutors said first-time offenders are usually 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, but he recused his office in this case and asked for an outside prosecutor because one of his assistant solicitors had attended the Christmas party at the home earlier in the evening and could be called as a witness.

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Four teenagers over age 17 and six juveniles were given citations for underage drinking after police arrived at Busch's 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 of Stilesboro Road, in the early hours of Dec. 22, after a neighbor reported hearing what sounded like gunshots.

Upon investigating, police found lots of popped balloons in 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.

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

"Officer Ryan asked if [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.

Middleton returned a few minutes later with 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."

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

"Mrs. 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 Mrs. 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."

Sen. Wiles arrived at 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.

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 community, where homes are currently listed for sale for more than $1 million.

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

Wiles was not charged with any crime.

Last week, he 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."