Erin Andrews On Peephole Video: ‘This Could Have Been Stopped’
ESPN sportscaster and “Dancing With the Stars” co-host Erin Andrews is a “shell” of her former self, her father, Steve Andrews, said in reference to her nude video and picture scandal. Andrews tearfully talked about the invasion of privacy she experienced in 2008, when a stalker filmed her through a peephole at Marriott Nashville. She is suing the hotel in a civil case for $75 million.
“I'm so angry. This could have been stopped,” Andrews, 37, said, according to People magazine. “All I wanted to do is be respected, be the girl who loves sports, and now I’m the girl with the scandal. It’s embarrassing.”
The stalker, Michael David Barrett, requested to have the room next to Andrews’. The hotel gave him the room and never told Andrews that someone asked to have the room next to hers. He then drilled a hole in the wall and filmed her naked on a cell phone camera.
Barrett pleaded guilty to federal stalking charges in 2009 and was sentenced to more than two and a half years in prison. He spent 20 months behind bars before being released. Barrett regrets his choices, calling it a “huge, huge mistake in judgment” in court Monday. “I’m not proud of what I did.”
But before Barrett felt any remorse, he posted the nude photos of Andrews to the internet. And now they can never be removed. “It’s on the internet now,” she testified. “And I’ve been told it’s going to be on the internet until I die.”
Even though it happened nearly seven years ago, the trial has made Andrews feel like she’s experiencing the incident for the first time. “This trial has obviously brought everything back,” she said, according to the Tennessean. “This is like it was the first week it happened. I knew it was going to happen.”
As hard as reliving the scandal has been, Andrews knows she did the right thing. “I have to do what’s right,” Andrews said. “And I have to stand up for myself. And I have to stand up for everyone.”
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