Erin Andrews Peephole Case Solved By FBI [video]



2009 October, 3rd
Phil Butler
Phil Butler
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Apparently, the Erin Andrews peephole case has been solved. According to the news today, a Chicago man was arrested by FBI agents at O’Hare airport in connection with the nude videos made of Andrews in her hotel room. The suspect, Michael David Barrett, now faces federal charges of interstate stalking, posting videos online, and attempting to sell the videos illegally to TMZ. Barrett is scheduled to be arraigned on the charges today in the U.S. District Court in Chicago.

The Andrews story, which we have covered since its beginning, has been one of the most followed stories on the Intnernet these last weeks. Andrews, one of ESPN’s most popular sports reporters, was always something of a sex symbol for prime time sports reporting, but since the news of these peephole videos, here fame has skyrocketed.

For those who are not familiar with the case (all 4 of you), Andrews was filmed through the peephole of her hotel room in Nashville and Milwaulkee back in 2008 by an unknown assailant as she undressed alone in her room. Subsequently, a number of videos appeared on the Web, which instantly became the hot trend there for weeks. The 31 year old Andrews made several statments at the time, and even appeared on Oprah to express her disdain and fears about the affair. Now that Barrett has been arrested, even more details have emerged.

Apparently, Barrett asked for the room next to Andrews and then made preparations to film the ESPN sportscaster as she undressed at one point or another. Interestingly, and impacting the potential sentencing of Barrett if he is found guilty, these videos seem to have been taken on several different occasions, providing more evidence and gravity to the stalking charges against Barrett. Andrews has also stated pulicly that she will pursue not only criminal prosecution, but that she will also seek civil restitution for the damage done to her and her image.

The following statement was issued through Andrew’s attorneys (Bingham McCutchen LLP) via PR Newswire today as well. It reads as follows.

“Today’s action by the FBI is a welcome step in bringing this investigation to a successful close. We made it clear in our original statement issued on July 17, that we were determined to press criminal charges against those responsible for the invasion of Erin’s privacy when alone in her hotel room. Erin and her attorneys have been working closely with the United States Attorney, the FBI in Los Angeles and the private investigation firm of Kroll, Inc. since mid-July to investigate and reveal the full facts surrounding this matter. It is now clear that she was the victim of stalking and invasion of privacy at more than one location. She was not a random victim. She was targeted and violated.

Upon learning of today’s events, Andrews said: “I am deeply grateful to Assistant United States Attorney Wes Hsu and Special Agents for their dedicated service; and to ESPN for its support during this difficult time. I hope that today’s action will help the countless others who have been similarly victimized. For my part, I will make every effort to strengthen the laws on a State and Federal level to better protect victims of criminal stalking. I am also grateful to those who have expressed their concerns and good wishes for my family and me.”

Special Note: We will be sending a message or calling Erin Andrew’s attorneys concerning a prominent instance of the full video we ran across in looking for video coverage of Andrews’s statement on this arrest. The video link is here, and if anyone can get this issue to Andrews we suggest sending this link so that the video via Yahoo Espana can be removed.

About the Author

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Phil Butler is editor-in-chief of Everything PR and senior partner at Pamil Visions PR. He’s a widely cited authority on beta startups, search engines and public relations issues, and he has covered tech news since 2004. Phil wrote in the past for ReadWriteWeb, Mashable, Profy, SitePoint, Search Engine Journal, AltSearchEngines. Follow Phil on Twitter or send him an email at phil [at] pamil-visions [dot] com.

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There Are 3 Responses So Far. »

  1. Comment by Prime Boxing News 24/7 on 11 October 2009:

    Erin Andrews articles and news indeed yielded great PR.

  2. Comment by david k on 19 October 2009:

    There was a lot of speculation a while back that Andrews may have been complicit in these videos. As you said in your article, her popularity skyrocketed after the incident, so you can see why the speculation took place. When you consider that most people don’t wander around their hotel room naked for extended periods of time (mostly that’s done in a bathroom which wouldn’t be visible with a modified peephole), and if it was done thru a door peephole, the perpetrator would have to be in the hall looking thru a peephole for an extended time, which you think would have been spotted by someone as being suspicious. If it was shot from an adjacent room, there would be evidence that the walls had holes drilled thru them.

    But now it appears the perpetrator managed to get himself and Andrews in a secluded wing of the hotel, so that threw a lot of the speculation out the window. Still, he had to be “lucky” to catch her naked in the middle of her hotel room — sounds like a lot of effort on his part to travel to various cities with the hopes that MAYBE he’d get to see something “good”.

    In any event, I am glad for Miss Andrews that she can take some comfort in knowing that her stalker has been caught, but it is quite scary to know that this sort of thing could happen, and women traveling alone are evidently quite easy prey due to lax security measures taken by hotel staff. There is no way her room info should have been given out to anyone who asks, and certainly a room change should not have been allowed without her permission as well. Maybe he posed as her travel coordinator, so it appears more safeguards need to be offered for such scenarios (ask for confirmation number and/or other info that a stalker wouldn’t know). Also, maybe peepholes should have some kind of flap that would prevent people from seeing in, and the flap can only be opened by someone inside the room when they want to look out.

  3. Pingback by ESPN's Latest Soap Opera, The Fatal Attraction To Steve Phillips on 21 October 2009:

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