Report: Haynesworth witness was paid $50K

WASHINGTON, Aug. 16 (UPI) -- A witness in the Albert Haynesworth sexual abuse trial was offered $50,000 to testify against the football player, his lawyer alleges.

Attorney A. Scott Bolden, alleged in a filing with Washington Superior Court Monday that the witness, a bouncer, was paid by the prosecution to say he saw the New England Patriots defensive tackle grope a cocktail waitress, The Washington Post reported.

Haynesworth -- who previously played for the Washington Redskins and the Tennessee Titans -- is charged with sexual abuse for groping a waitress' breast at W Hotel's P.O.V. Roof Terrace Lounge Feb. 13.

The filing says the witness told a private detective working for Bolden that the contact between the football player and the waitress was consensual and that he was offered the $50,000 to testify on behalf of the waitress.

In the filing, Bolden requested to have statements made by Haynesworth excluded from the trial on grounds they were made before he was read his rights.

Hayneworth had allegedly told a detective: "(The waitress) was upset I have a white girlfriend. I couldn't tell you the last time I dated a black girl."

"These statements will serve no purpose other than to impair the search for the truth, harass, annoy or humiliate Mr. Haynesworth, improperly inflame the arbiter and unfairly prejudice Mr. Haynesworth's defense in this action," Bolden wrote.

Haynesworth's trial is set to begin Aug. 23.