THE NEWSPAPER INK WAS BARELY DRY on last weekend's front-page story reporting a teen drinking party busted by police at the home of a local judge before bloggers began bashing state Sen. John Wiles (R-Kennesaw) on the MDJonline.com Web site for his actions as the party wound down.

And now comes news that popular retired Cobb school board member Lindsey Tippins is "seriously, seriously" thinking of mounting a challenge to Wiles in the July 20 GOP Primary. Wiles, an entrenched incumbent in a heavily Republican district, had not been expected to have serious opposition.

Cobb police on Dec. 22 cited 10 teenagers who attend the prestigious Walker School in Marietta for drinking alcohol at the home of attorney Diane Busch, a municipal court judge for the cities of Woodstock and Marietta. Four teenagers older than 17 and six juveniles were cited for "minor in possession of alcohol" after police arrived at Busch's home around 3 a.m. that morning.

The teen drinking followed a Christmas party earlier in the evening for adults. When police arrived at the house they saw several people who appeared to be underage holding beer cans. After they asked one teen to summon an adult, Kathryn Middleton came to the door with a beer in her hand and appeared intoxicated, according to the police report. Middleton is a friend and neighbor of Busch's, and one of Middleton's children was also at the home. She has since retained Joel Pugh as her defense attorney.

Middleton returned a few minutes later with Busch, the homeowner, "who also seemed to be very intoxicated," according to the report.

Wiles, whose son was at the party (but was not drinking, police said), arrived at Busch's home while the police were in the basement testing the teenagers for alcohol consumption. Busch is an attorney in Wiles' law firm, Wiles & Wiles, in Marietta. Both live in the exclusive Marietta Country Club subdivision off Stilesboro Road, where houses are listed for sale for more than $1 million. According to the police report, Wiles "stated he had come to assist Ms. Busch. Ms. Busch made it known that Mr. Wiles was a former Cobb prosecutor and is (now) a state senator. Mrs. Busch had also stated she was a traffic court judge in Woodstock."

The police report notes Wiles commented that one of the youths should not be charged because he was going to college on an athletic scholarship, which would be jeopardized by a citation.

"I then had Mr. Wiles meet with me off to the side where I advised him that there would be no picking and choosing on who would be charged and who would not," Sgt. T.W. Jennings wrote in his report. "A few moments later I overheard Ms. Busch ask from across the room if we were really going to cite all of the kids. When one of the officers answered yes, she stated that 'she had allowed it.' Mr. Wiles was quick to tell Ms. Busch to be quiet."

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WILES IS NOT BELIEVED to be a target of the investigation into who supplied the alcohol to the teens. But many bloggers were irked that Wiles was seeking special treatment for the teens, Ms. Busch and Ms. Middleton.

Wiles and his wife, Janel Wiles, his law partner, have five children, all current or past students at The Walker School. Mrs. Wiles is also on the Walker board, a board criticized by some bloggers for what they claim is the school's ambivalent attitude toward teen drinking.

Wiles represents District 37 in northwest Cobb, roughly the same area Tippins represented on the school board. Wiles was elected to the Georgia Senate in 2004 and chairs the Special Judiciary Committee. He also chairs the 19-member Cobb legislative delegation.

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TIPPINS LAST FALL closely considered, but ultimately opted out, of running this year against Commissioner Tim Lee of northeast Cobb to succeed Sam Olens this year as chairman of the Cobb Board of Commissioners when he resigns to run for state attorney general. Tippins told AT at the time that it was "not the right time in my life" for a county-wide race for the chairman's job, citing the time commitment needed for Cobb's top job. He says his interest in running for Senate does not coincide with Wiles' troubles, and that people have been urging him to run for the seat "for the past six or eight months."

Tippins, 60, is a self-made, highly successful owner of Tippins Contracting, an underground utility business specializing in water and sewer lines. He lives on a 60-acre farm in the Lost Mountain community and speaks with a quiet drawl. The joys of his life are his grandchildren and quail hunting with his half dozen bird dogs.

He was elected to the school board in 1996 and represented the Post 1 area of Harrison, Hillgrove, Kennesaw Mountain and Allatoona high schools in west Cobb until retiring in 2008. He never accepted a dime for his board work, donating his salary (a total of almost $250,000) to the Cobb Educational Foundation for scholarships.

Serving as school board chair in 2000, 2004 and 2007, he was known for his no-nonsense, business-like approach to education issues.

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From the very beginning he and longtime board member Betty Gray of Mableton were the lone voices of opposition to then-Superintendent Joe Redden's $100.8 million plan to equip each middle and high school student with a take-home laptop computer, which Cobb Superior Court Judge S. Lark Ingram ultimately ruled was illegal.

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DID COBB POLICE try to cover-up details of the Christmas party bust at the Marietta home of Judge Diane Busch, which began as an adult holiday get-together but devolved into a teen drinking party in the wee hours of the morning after most of the adults had left or, in the case of the hostess, gone to bed? Or did bad legal advice from the Cobb County Attorney’s office delay details of the story, which has been the buzz around town and in the MDJ’s blogosphere after the newspaper was finally able to break the story on its front page Feb. 13? Here is the timeline of events so readers can make up their own minds:

Late Dec. 21: Judge Busch hosts a holiday party for adult friends.

Early Dec. 22: After the adult guests had nearly all departed, most of the teens still at the house start drinking. Neighbors mistake the sound of balloons popping for gunfire and call police, who arrive around 3 a.m. and find the drinking teens. The police report also notes Busch said that among the attendees at the party earlier in the evening had been friends from the Cobb District Attorney’s office and a Cobb police precinct supervisor. It also noted that she threatened to call Police Chief G.B. Hatfield and Cobb Public Safety Director Mickey Lloyd.

Late January: The MDJ learns about the party and the teens cited for underage drinking.

January 29: Immediately after being tipped off about the affair, the MDJ asks Cobb police for the incident report. On the morning of Jan. 29, Cobb police turn down our request for a copy of the police report, saying the case was an “open and active investigation.” But they say the report would be turned over “the next week or two” when the investigation was completed.

But later that day, Cobb police curiously emailed the MDJ that since the report involved juveniles, no report would be provided, thereby contradicting what they’d said that morning. (Never mind that under Georgia law all incident or initial police reports are public records whether juveniles are involved or not. If juveniles are involved, Georgia law allows their names to be redacted. Also worth noting is that all 18 pages of reports turned over are clearly identified as “Incident Reports” — which Georgia law says are considered public record.

First week of February: After being turned down by Cobb police for two apparently different reasons in the same day, the MDJ tries unsuccessfully to obtain the report from a non-police department source.

Feb. 10: The MDJ is advised by Georgia Press Association attorney and First Amendment lawyer David Hudson of Augusta that Georgia law and the Law Enforcement Guide clearly indicate that initial reports with or without juveniles are public records. The Cobb police, he adds, “are giving you a line of bull.”

Feb. 10: MDJ News Editor Kim Isaza calls Chief Hatfield and renews the MDJ’s request for the report, citing Hudson’s interpretation of the law. But she again is turned down. Questioned further, Hatfield says he is relying on the advice of county attorney William Rowling.

It was then that Hatfield discloses for the first time that Cobb State Court Solicitor Barry Morgan, who prosecutes misdemeanors, had appointed a special prosecutor in the case.

Feb. 11: Morgan confirms to the MDJ that back on Jan. 22 — a week before the MDJ twice unsuccessfully sought the report — he indeed hired a special prosecutor, Lalaine Briones, an attorney with the Atlanta-based Prosecuting Attorneys Council. She was hired, he explains, because one of his assistant DAs attended the adult party at Ms. Busch’s house on Dec. 21 and conceivably could be called as a witness if Busch and Middleton are prosecuted. Late that day the MDJ receives information from an attorney in private practice that Morgan would provide the 18-page police report if an Open Records request for it were submitted.

Feb. 12: Editor Isaza hand-delivers the request to Morgan at 8:30 a.m. Although Georgia law allows three days before requested public documents must be turned over, Morgan immediately hands the report to Ms. Isaza.

Feb. 13: The MDJ runs a front-page story based on the report — the report that should have been turned over by Cobb police on Jan. 29 when it was first requested. (That story has generated more than 9,400 views by on-line readers since then, and nearly 250 reader responses.)

Question: Did Cobb police hold up the release of the sensational report for almost two weeks because of bad legal advice from the county attorney’s office? Or was a cover up planned from the git-go?

Answer: You be the judge. But we’ll give the last word to Public Safety director Lloyd: “We could care less who is involved. George (Hatfield) and I have both been doing this for 38 years apiece. We’ve come up on a lot of cases where politics (are involved), but you just can’t let who it is come into it.”