On Monday, jury selection has started for the $75 million civil lawsuit filed by a Fox Sports reporter against a Nashville hotel. The complainant has accused the establishment for negligence when a stalker of hers was able to record nude videos of her while she stayed in her hotel room.
Erin Andrews filed a lawsuit against Marriott Nashville at Vanderbilt University for the incident that occurred in 2008. The reporter complained that the hotel made it easy for Michael David Barrett, a former insurance salesman from Illinois, to book a room right next to her. The complaint states that Barrett used his real name to book the room before he doctored a room-door peephole to see through Andrews' room. Barrett filmed the reporter changing inside the room and later tried to sell her the footage as blackmail.
In 2010, Barrett was charged and has since pleaded guilty for the crime. He was sentenced to serve a prison time of 30 months. During his sentencing, Andrews said that she felt like she was not given full justice against her stalker. Andrews said that Barrett had pleaded guilty because there was a box full of evidence that the FBI had against him, not because he was remorseful of what he had done.
Andrews shares that "Every time I check into a hotel room, I fear he is in the closet, and every time I go home, I fear he is waiting for me. I fear for my life." The reporter also called her stalker as a "sexual deviant" and a "sexual predator."
Page Six later reported that Andrews accused the hotel at Vanderbilt University, its management and owners for allowing Barrett to know her room number and to book a room right next door to her. The lawsuit was filed in 2011, which cites invasion of privacy and infliction of emotional distress. Recently, a judge removed Marriott International from the case.
A hotel spokeswoman clarified that "Since the incident in question, the Nashville Marriott at Vanderbilt has changed management." She went on to share that the new management adheres to a strict policy relating to guest privacy.
At the time of the incident, Andrews was in town to cover a football game for ESPN (where she worked at that time). When Barrett was able to record the footage, he tried to sell it to TMZ but they didn't buy it. Despite this, the footage was able to get published online; which led to an investigation by the FBI. TMZ helped provide the email address used by Barrett to get in touch with them, which helped lead to his arrest.
Andrews' trial against the hotel is expected to last two weeks.
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