National Football League

More legal trouble for Haynesworth?

Published Aug. 19, 2011 1:00 a.m. ET

foxsports

Prosecutors said Albert Haynesworth's attorney offered a bribe to a woman who has accused the New England Patriots defensive tackle of groping her, The Washington Post reported Friday.

"The government is well aware of the fact that on numerous occasions since the assault ... defense counsel has approached the victim's attorney offering a sum of money in exchange for getting the criminal case dismissed," federal prosecutors said in a filing in Washington, D.C. Superior Court.

The prosecutors did not specify the amount of the alleged offer.

Haynesworth, 30, is accused of touching a cocktail waitress' breast at a rooftop bar at the W Hotel in Washington, D.C., in February. He has pleaded not guilty to a misdemeanor charge of sexual abuse and his trial is set to begin Tuesday.

The bribery allegation came after Haynesworth's attorney, A. Scott Bolden, claimed Monday that a security guard at the W Hotel was offered $50,000 to testify on behalf of the waitress even though he saw that the contact with Haynesworth was consensual.

Bolden alleged the security guard disclosed the information to one of his private detectives. Prosecutors called the claim "unconscionable," arguing that the security guard was interviewed by police but never testified in the case.