<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">The past five weeks could not have gone much worse for the team prosecuting the Kobe Bryant sexual assault case. A court clerk mistakenly released to the media transcripts of a closed hearing involving the accuser's sexual history, and the court later posted on its website a sealed document that revealed the accuser's last name, prompting an apology from trial judge Terry Ruckriegle. Lead prosecutor Mark Hurlbert withdrew from the case. Ruckriegle ruled that certain information about the accuser's sexual history was admissible and also released a transcript revealing that Bryant's accuser received more than $17,000 from a victim-compensation fund -- which the defense spun to suggest that she had a financial motive to lie. Now, however, an aggressive move by prosecutors may shift the momentum, and even drag Shaquille O'Neal into court as a witness. SI has learned that prosecutors plan to subpoena a 22-year-old Florida waitress who claims she was the object of unwanted sexual advances by Bryant. Prosecutors have notified Bryant's lawyers that the woman may be called as a witness at the trial, set to begin on Aug. 27 in Eagle, Colo. Her testimony might be used by the prosecution to show that aggressive sexual actions are part of Bryant's pattern of behavior. (Pamela Mackey, Bryant's lead attorney, did not respond to SI's efforts to reach her.) According to the Florida woman and others familiar with her allegation, she was among the employees of Orlando's Planet Hollywood restaurant who worked at a private party at O'Neal's home on Thanksgiving 2002. The Lakers were in Orlando to play the Magic, and O'Neal, who owns a 26,000-square-foot house in the city's Isleworth neighborhood, hosted a team dinner. The woman alleges that Bryant approached her and asked for her cellphone number, which she provided. Later, Bryant asked her to get him a soft drink and bring it to him outside, which she did in the presence of another man. Bryant then cornered her and groped her private parts. She says Bryant laughed as she pushed him away, and that she retreated inside O'Neal's home and called her mother. The next day, the woman says, she received a call from a man who said he was an associate of Bryant's, apologizing for Bryant's behavior. </div> full story
