The woman walking into the federal courtroom was shaking slightly. She appeared embarrassed, knowing what she was about to tell jurors.

Before long, she was crying on the witness stand, occasionally looking toward the heavens as if someone above might rescue her from the humiliation.

No, this wasn't Erin Kenny.

The disgraced former county commissioner showed a boxer's defiant "bring it on" attitude during her two days on the witness stand, as she admitted taking at least $400,000 in under-the-table payoffs.

Oh, she said she was raised better than that and taking payoffs was against her moral code, but she never seemed embarrassed by a thing she did or said, including her foul-mouthed conversations captured on tape, as she testified against former Commissioners Dario Herrera and Mary Kincaid-Chauncey.

Kenny even brought a son to court Monday to observe her testimony.

Kathleen Bowman, 41, was the shaking woman dressed all in black who felt shamed.

Bowman said she worked three years at Cheetah's, the popular topless club that was owned by Michael Galardi, a prosecution witness who pleaded guilty in the corruption case.

She started as a cocktail waitress because topless dancing, she said, "is much harder on your mind and your soul." But as a waitress, she wasn't pulling in the average $1,500 a day the dancers were, so she began dancing topless. She didn't explain why but said she needed extra money and asked Galardi whether she could do anything to make more money.

"I performed oral sex for money for Michael Galardi," she said, her voice fading, her tears falling. "He knew I needed money, and he asked."

Sometime in 2002, Galardi sent her to a private restroom in Cheetah's and told her to provide oral sex to a customer. The man inside was Herrera, a Democratic congressional candidate at the time. A man she knew. Someone she had dated twice a few years earlier. Somehow that made it worse.

She said she did what she was asked to do, was paid about $300 or $400 by Galardi and the next day quit Cheetah's. "I'm embarrassed about it; I was intoxicated at the time," she said.

Jurors appeared moved by her. Little was said about her life today, other than that she is a bartender, but it seems like that was a past she was glad to have behind her. The incident with Herrera, she said, was "a profound experience because he was someone I respected and liked."

Herrera attorney Marc Rothenberg asked: Was she trying to rekindle a relationship?

"I'm not about to rekindle a relationship in a restroom," Bowman said.

During her testimony, the female jurors glanced between her and Herrera's wife, sitting stone-faced behind her husband, the father of her two children.

Emily Herrera had listened to dancer Melissa Schoff, 26, describe giving Herrera lap dances for an hour in the VIP room at Cheetah's. Schoff was paid $400 for her efforts by the club manager. (Although the jury was not told this because the judge ruled it would be prejudicial, Emily Herrera gave birth to their first child that day, March 15, 2001.)

After Bowman, Emily Herrera listened to the testimony of Nicole Compton, a woman who dated Herrera when he was separated from his wife for two months. Compton told of receiving a $4,000 diamond solitaire pendant from Tiffany's in Las Vegas from Herrera, who had paid cash.

And in the tackiest tale of the day, Compton said Herrera gave her the Tiffany bag and left the receipt inside.

When Herrera and his wife left the courtroom Monday, he started to touch her back, then hesitated, almost as if sparks might fly from her repressed anger. But by the time they left the courthouse, they were back in their loving couple mode, walking hand in hand past news photographers. However, their faces were grim.

Prosecutors argued that the tawdry testimony suggesting a sexually voracious Herrera was necessary to show that he was being paid with sexual favors and that money wasn't the only "currency of corruption." The defense contended that the testimony was meant to make jurors despise Herrera.

Of all the witnesses so far, the saddest one, the one who moved listeners, was Kathleen Bowman struggling with her mortification.

Jane Ann Morrison's column appears Monday, Thursday and Saturday. E-mail her at Jane@reviewjournal.com or call 383-0275.