Sport Reporter Stalked, Videotaped in More than One Location
Posted: Friday, December 4th, 2009 at 10:00 am
Los Angeles, CA—According to recently filed court documents, a man who is accused of stalking a sports reporter may have made more nude videotapes of her than previously known.
Michael David Barrett allegedly videotaped ESPN reporter Erin Andrews through peepholes in hotel room doors. Barrett, 48, is also accused of posting the videos, which authorities believe were taken with a cell phone, on online video sharing sites.
Andrews, 31, is a sideline reporter for the television sports network ESPN. She travels around the country reporting from college football games. In a criminal complaint filed this week, Andrews said that she became aware that some videos had been made of her in July and that this knowledge has caused her anxiety and distress in addition to insomnia.
Many of the videos had been made at a Nashville, TN hotel in September 2008. New information, however, also says that Barrett allegedly also videotaped Andrews through an altered peephole in the door of a hotel room in Columbus, OH. Investigators also found that Barrett had reserved a room at a Milwaukee, WI hotel where Andrews was also booked, but did not check in.
The peephole in the door of Andrews’s room in the Nashville hotel had been altered with a hacksaw, according to the complaint. The peephole in her door in Milwaukee was similarly altered, as well.
Barrett was arrested in Illlinois, but is scheduled to appear in a Los Angeles federal court later this week. He will be arraigned on November 23, and will be asked to submit a plea. Last month, an Illinois judge released Barrett on bail.
He waived his right to be indicted by a grand jury, and so in lieu of an indictment, authorities filed a criminal information against him. He is charged with interstate stalking, which ha a potential sentence of five years in prison, said a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Central District of California.
Barrett also allegedly tried to sell the videos to the celebrity gossip Web site TMZ, in January 2009. Although the site did not purchase the videos, some of its employees did provide information to Andrews’s attorneys and therefore assisted the investigation.
Barrett himself posted the videos to other Web sites, tagging some of them things like “sexy and hot blonde sports celebrity shows us her all.”
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