Former ESPN and current Fox Sports reporter Erin Andrews has been in an emotional and disturbing lawsuit recently stemming from an incident in 2008.
In 2008, Michael David Barrett, filmed Andrews in her hotel room through peepholes at the Nashville Marriott adjacent Vanderbilt University in Tennessee and he also filmed her at the Radisson Airport Hotel in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In 2009, one of these videos, in which Andrews appeared totally nude, was posted online and quickly went viral. Barrett was arrested on October 2, 2009, by the FBI for interstate stalking, and pleaded guilty to the charges on December 15, 2009. Eventually, Barrett was sentenced to 30 months in prison, three years of probation, $5,000 in fines, and $7,366 in restitution.
In October 2015, Andrews filed a complaint against the Nashville Marriott and Michael David Barrett for $75 million but today she was awarded $55 million as a result.
Meghan Keneally of ABCNews has the full report.
The jury has awarded Erin Andrews $55 million in her civil lawsuit over the secret recording and release of a video showing her naked during a hotel stay.
The sportscaster’s original suit asked for $75 million from the owner and operator of the Nashville, Tennessee, hotel where she was staying, and Michael David Barrett, the stalker who used a hacksaw to tamper with her room’s peephole and record the video in 2008.
The jurors took photos with Andrews after the amount was announced, and she signed autographs, according to reports from inside the courtroom.
The jury found Barrett to be 51 percent at fault and required him to pay out more than $28 million. West End Hotel Partners, which owns and operates that Nashville Marriott at Vanderbilt University, was found to be 49 percent at fault and asked to pay out more than $26 million.
Andrews, 37, testified last week over the course of two days during the trial and broke down in tears at several points in talking about the effect the 2009 release of the video online has had on her personal life.
Andrew posted the following on her Twitter account following the decision.
— Erin Andrews (@ErinAndrews) March 7, 2016
