Celebrity Mound

An Illinois insurance executive who secretly shot nude videos of ESPN reporter Erin Andrews was sentenced Monday to 2 1/2 years in prison after giving a tearful apology that was harshly rebuked by his victim.

Michael David Barrett pleaded guilty in December to interstate stalking after prosecutors accused him of following the reporter to at least three cities and shooting the videos through hotel peepholes.

Barrett, 48, of suburban Chicago, agreed to a 27-month prison sentence after pleading guilty but it was up to the judge to decide how long he would actually serve.

Andrews urged the judge at the hearing for a harsher sentence and said she fears for her life every time she enters a hotel.

“You violated me and you violated all women,” Andrews told Barrett. “You are a sexual predator, a sexual deviant and they should lock you up.”

After the sentencing, she said, “Thirty months isn’t enough.”

Barrett admitted renting hotel rooms next to Andrews three times and shooting two videos of her while she was naked. He was accused of posting the videos online and trying to sell them to Los Angeles-based celebrity gossip site TMZ last year.

U.S. District Judge Manuel Real said he gave Barrett the maximum sentence under the law.

“The victim, Andrews, will be suffering with this problem for the rest of her life,” Real said. “There is no life sentence that can be imposed upon him, except his own guilt.”

Barrett cried as he addressed Andrews in court, saying he would spend the rest of his life regaining the respect of his friends and family and atoning for his mistakes.

“There are no words to tell Ms. Andrews how sorry I am for what I’ve done to her,” he said. “I hope someday she can forgive me.”

Andrews, visibly nervous as she spoke, said she had no sympathy for Barrett’s claim he was publicly humiliated.

“It’s my body on the Internet,” she said. “I’m being traumatized every single day for what he did. … This will never be over for me.”

Barrett, who has until May 3 to surrender, was ordered to have supervised probation for three years after his release, during which he will be prohibited from contacting Andrews, her family or friends.

He will not be allowed to stay in a hotel without approval of a probation officer and if he accepts employment somewhere, Andrews will be notified. Barrett was also ordered to pay $5,000 in fines and $7,366 in restitution, but the judge said further restitution may be imposed to compensate ESPN.

Barrett’s lawyer, David Willingham, said his client is undergoing psychological treatment and “has sought the path of redemption.”

“Mr. Barrett has lost everything he built throughout his life,” Willingham said. “He’s lost his career, his fiancee and his life savings. He knows that he brought this on himself.”

Federal prosecutors in Los Angeles have agreed not to pursue further charges against Barrett. However, he could face criminal action in other states stemming from other videos he allegedly shot of unsuspecting nude women through peepholes.

Andrews’ attorney, Marshall Grossman, has said there could be as many as a dozen other women that Barrett taped.

A sentencing memo filed last month in federal court says Barrett uploaded videos of 16 other women to an online account.

Barrett also allegedly conducted 30 Internet background checks that can produce birthdays and home addresses, the document said. The filing did not name the other alleged victims or say what information he obtained or how he may have used it.

Prosecutors claim that 32 videos provided by DailyMotion.com show Barrett “victimized approximately 16 other women in almost precisely the same way that he victimized” Andrews. They did not identify the women.

Andrews testified in December that Barrett’s actions had a devastating impact on her and her family because she is constantly reminded that his videos appeared online and is subjected to taunts from sports fans when she works as a sideline reporter.

Andrews has agreed to appear on the new season of ABC-TV’s “Dancing with the Stars” – an offer she said ABC made before the stalking allegations. She said she doesn’t want to seclude herself from the public eye because other victims would get the wrong message.

“I did nothing wrong. Just trying to live my life,” she said.

“I had to deal with a lot of people who said I deserved it, that I had played to a certain audience.”

Her attorney said she will not file a lawsuit against Barrett.

The video stalker who secretly shot footage of naked ESPN reporter Erin Andrews through a hotel peephole had 16 other victims — but failed to net more female sports figures and TV personalities, as he had wanted, new court documents revealed yesterday.

Loser lecher Michael Barrett, a 48-year-old insurance exec, ran creepy background checks — compiling birth dates and home addresses — on Andrews and more than 30 other women, some of whom were TV sportscasters and stars, authorities said in a presentencing memo to an LA judge.

Using the information, he wound up victimizing “approximately 16 other women in almost precisely the same way that he victimized” Andrews — although none of them is believed to be celebrities, the documents said.

Videos of Andrews and the other women are still floating around the Internet under such titles as “Erin Andrews in a Pink Thong,” “Sexy Hot Blonde Strips After Workout” and “Hottie Breasts,” the court papers said.

Andrews — who says she’s been an emotional basket case since the footage entered Internet infamy last year — is seeking $335,000 in restitution from Barrett.

He has already pleaded guilty to interstate stalking and is set to be sentenced on March 8, when he is expected to receive a 27- month jail term.

Barrett, who could have gotten up to five years, is free on bail.

Andrews, 31, “wakes up at least once a night fearing that defendant is breaking into her home,” the court papers said.

“Whenever she goes to work, she must deal . . . with worries that she is not being taken seriously.

“Also disturbing is the fact that many people, including some of victim Andrews’ peers in the media, wrongly believed that victim Andrews had something to do with these videos, that she orchestrated them to boost her career,” according to the documents.

Barrett would hunt down Andrews to her hotel and rent the room next to hers, then shoot video footage of her naked through the peephole.

He admitted to doing this three times, as she showered, dried her hair and got dressed.

He then posted 10 videos on the Web — and another 32 “hotel peephole” clips of the other women, the papers said.

Andrews’ lawyer said the reporter plans to argue for a harsher sentence for Barrett at his next hearing. Andrews said after Barrett’s last court hearing, “I want him to stay in jail as long as possible; he’s a threat to women everywhere.”

She also said ESPN had hired a fulltime bodyguard to travel with her on assignments. With Post Wire Services

Search warrants have been served at Yahoo Inc. and Google Inc. in connection with an Illinois man accused of secretly recording nude videos of ESPN reporter Erin Andrews.

FBI agents served the warrants on Wednesday at the Northern California offices of both tech giants. One of the items they want Yahoo to turn over is a video of another naked woman that was posted in June to Flickr.com by a user.

Authorities believe the Flickr account belongs to 48-year-old Michael Barrett, who pleaded not guilty last month to interstate stalking. Flickr is owned by Yahoo.

Barrett is suspected of renting hotel rooms adjacent to Andrews three times last year and altering peepholes. He allegedly shot videos of her on two of those occasions.

E-mails seeking comment were sent to Yahoo and Google with no response.

An Illinois insurance executive accused of secretly making nude videos of ESPN reporter Erin Andrews is expected to make his first court appearance Friday.

Michael Barrett was due in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles to face one count of interstate stalking. He is free on $4,500 bond and scheduled to be arraigned in the same courtroom on Monday.

The 47-year-old Barrett is charged with making videos of Andrews through the peephole in her hotel room door, and federal prosecutors say he uploaded to the Internet nude videos of other women also made through peepholes.

Prosecutors add Barrett tried to sell the Andrews videos to celebrity gossip site TMZ.

Interstate stalking carries a maximum penalty of five years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.

A judge was expected to decide Monday whether a man accused of stalking ESPN reporter Erin Andrews and secretly video taping her nude should be returned to Los Angeles as a federal prisoner or free on bail to face charges.

Michael David Barrett, 47, of Westmont, Ill., was being held in jail over the weekend after his arrest Friday at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago. Investigators believe he recorded Andrews by aiming a cell phone camera through an altered peephole in the door of her hotel room.

An FBI affidavit said Barrett requested and stayed in a room near Andrews at a Tennessee hotel where seven videos were likely taken. An eighth video may have been shot at a Milwaukee hotel. Barrett is accused of posting the videos online and trying to sell them to celebrity Web site TMZ.com.

Barrett, clad in the bright orange jumpsuit of a federal prisoner, made a brief initial appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge Arlander Keys on Saturday in Chicago. He faces charges in Los Angeles, where TMZ is based, of interstate stalking and could face up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted.

“I don’t think he’s even had a traffic ticket,” said his lawyer, Rick Beuke, who said he has known Barrett for a decade.

“He’s as regular a guy as you’ll ever meet – a great friend,” Beuke added. “I must have calls from 30 people wanting to know what they could do to help.”

Beuke said Barrett has been divorced for some time and has children. A neighbor in Westmont, Srividhya Viswanath, 36, a homemaker, said Barrett lived quietly in a townhome complex with a female companion. She said she never got to know them well in part because they traveled frequently. Westmont is about 20 miles west of Chicago.

A spokeswoman for the Combined Insurance Company of America confirmed that Barrett was an employee who worked in sales management. Amy Burrell-Tichy said the company was cooperating with the FBI.

Beuke said he did not discuss the particulars of the charges when he met briefly with Barrett, surrounded by FBI agents, in court. He said he would study the FBI affidavit and try to meet with Barrett on Sunday to learn more.

Several TV networks and newspapers aired clips or printed screen grabs from the videos of Andrews in July. The 31-year-old has covered hockey, college football, college basketball and Major League Baseball for ESPN since 2004 and was named “sexiest sportscaster” by Playboy magazine in 2008 and 2009.

Asked how Barrett became interested in Andrews, if the allegations were true or how he managed to get the adjacent hotel rooms, Beuke said he assumed it was not true. Chicago FBI spokesman Ross Rice said he did not know how Barrett allegedly became interested in Andrews.

An FBI affidavit said agents reviewed eight videos and all but one appeared to be taken in a single hotel. It said Andrews reviewed several and said they appeared to be of her in a room at the Marriott Nashville at Vanderbilt University.

Authorities said Barrett occupied an adjacent room, and that the peephole in the door of Andrews’ room appeared to have been modified with a hacksaw to permit videos to be made with a cell phone camera.

Bethesda, Md.-based Marriott International Inc. issued a statement Saturday saying the company takes its guests’ security and privacy seriously and has been cooperating with investigators.

FBI agents also went to the Ramada Conference Center in Milwaukee, formerly the Radisson Airport. The affidavit said Barrett made a reservation in the hotel for a night when Andrews was staying there and that the peephole in the room that she occupied had been similarly modified.

But they said Barrett never checked in to that hotel, and the interior of the room did not fully match what was seen on the eighth video.

Wyndam Worldwide Corp., which owns Ramada, did not immediately return a phone call for comment Saturday.

The affidavit said that in making his reservation in Nashville, Barrett specifically requested a room next to Andrews, who was referred to in the FBI document as “individual A.”

Reservation records in the hotel’s computer showed the notation: “INFO-GST RQST TO RM NXT TO (individual A),” the affidavit said.

Andrews thanked FBI agents and federal prosecutors for their work and said she hoped the case will eventually help others.

“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,” she said in a statement.

Andrews was scheduled to work the Auburn-Tennessee game Saturday night in Knoxville, Tenn.

Her attorney, Marshall Grossman, said the videos appeared to have been taped by a serial stalker who followed her from city to city.

“He wasn’t an accidental tourist,” he said. “He had her in his sights.”

Barrett tried to sell the videos to TMZ, but an employee there informed Andrews’ attorneys, according to the complaint.

FBI agents matched information in the e-mail to Barrett, and examined telephone records and credit card charges from Barrett’s Nashville hotel stay. Agents also concluded that the videos of Andrews were likely recorded by a cell phone.

Messages left at a phone listing for a Michael D. Barrett in Westmont weren’t immediately returned. Barrett’s father, Frank Barrett, 78, of Milwaukie, Ore., a suburb of Portland, said Saturday morning that he hadn’t yet been able to speak to his son. But he said the arrest came as a shock and the situation “does not match the Mike I know.”

“He’s always been an upstanding, hardworking guy,” Frank Barrett said.

A Chicago-area man arrested at O’Hare airport who is accused of taping surreptitious nude videos of ESPN reporter Erin Andrews was due to appear in federal court late Saturday morning, authorities said.

Michael David Barrett was arrested Friday night as he arrived on a flight from Buffalo, N.Y., the FBI said. He faces federal charges of interstate stalking for taking the videos, trying to sell them to celebrity Web site TMZ and posting the videos online, the FBI said in a statement.

Several TV networks and newspapers aired brief clips or printed screen grabs from the videos in July.

Andrews thanked FBI agents and federal prosecutors for their work on the arrest and said she hoped the case will eventually help 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,” she said in a statement early Saturday.

The charges against Barrett were filed in Los Angeles, where TMZ is based and where Andrews first became aware of the videos. She is identified in the federal complaint as E.A.

Andrews’ attorney, Marshall Grossman, said he called her Friday night with news of the arrest. She was greatly relieved, he said.

“I think she’s probably sleeping more soundly tonight than she has since these videos surfaced,” Grossman said.

FBI agents said seven of the eight videos posted online were taken through a modified door peephole while the 31-year-old Andrews was alone and undressed in hotel rooms in Nashville, Tenn., in September 2008.

FBI agents said they believe Barrett called many hotels to find out where Andrews was staying and requested a hotel room next to hers. Investigators said the eighth video was likely taken at another hotel, which Andrews couldn’t identify.

Agents said Barrett, 48, also made reservations at a Milwaukee hotel where she stayed in July 2008. They found her door’s peephole similarly rigged, but he didn’t check in at that hotel and the furniture in the room did not match furniture seen on the eighth video.

Barrett tried to sell the videos to TMZ, but an employee there informed Andrews’ attorneys, according to the complaint.

FBI agents matched information in the e-mail to Barrett, and also examined telephone records and credit card charges from Barrett’s Nashville hotel stay. Agents also concluded that the videos of Andrews were likely recorded from a cell phone camera.

Barrett sought to place Andrews under surveillance to harass and intimidate her, and to cause substantial emotional distress, the federal complaint said. He faces up to five years in federal prison if convicted.

A message left at a phone listing for a Michael D. Barrett in Westmont, Ill., wasn’t immediately returned Friday night.

Andrews has covered hockey, college football, college basketball and Major League Baseball for the network since 2004, often as a sideline reporter during games.

A former dance team member at the University of Florida, Andrews was named “sexiest sportscaster” by Playboy magazine in both 2008 and 2009. She has been referred to as “Erin Pageviews” because of the traffic that video clips and photos of her generate, and Playboy magazine named her “sexiest sportscaster” in both 2008 and 2009.

“This is clearly welcome news,” ESPN spokesman Josh Krulewitz said of the arrest. “Our thoughts and support continue to be with Erin, who has demonstrated tremendous strength and determination.”

The federal complaint said Andrews felt ashamed and embarrassed and has had trouble sleeping and breathing because of the videos. She has also been worried that more secretly taped footage will surface, the complaint said.

Grossman said by telephone Friday night that the videos appeared to have been taped by a serial stalker who followed Andrews from city to city.

“He wasn’t an accidental tourist,” he said. “He had her in his sights.”

Grossman has said Andrews plans to file civil lawsuits against the person who shot the video footage and anyone who publishes the material. He said in a statement Saturday morning that Andrews has worked side by side with law enforcement and a private investigative firm to reconstruct events.

“Erin deserves significant credit for the progress made in solving this case,” Grossman said.

Andrews, in an appearance on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” last month, said she thought her career was over once the nude footage of her began circulating on the Internet.

“I kept screaming: ‘I’m done. My career is over. I’m done. Get it off. Get it off the Internet,’” she said as she remembered talking to her father. “They thought I was physically injured, (that’s) how bad I was screaming.”

Andrews returned to the air Sept. 3 as the sideline reporter for ESPN’s broadcast of South Carolina at North Carolina State. She is scheduled to work the Auburn-Tennessee game Saturday night in Knoxville, Tenn.

Erin Andrews returns to the sidelines tonight for ESPN, her first time back on live TV since the popular reporter was the unwilling subject of a video made behind her back.

Andrews was at the center of a maelstrom of attention after a peeping tom spied on her in a hotel room, videotaped her nude and posted the grainy footage on the Internet.

Andrews, 31, will be working the sidelines for ESPN’s broadcast of the South Carolina vs. North Carolina State college football game.

While she’s looking forward to getting back to work after a tumultuous summer, Andrews is willingly baring her soul on TV next week – in an emotional appearance on the season premiere of “The Oprah Winfrey Show.” Andrews opens up for the first time about the videotape ordeal she calls a “nightmare.”

According to ABCNews.com, Andrews tells Winfrey she felt like she was violated all over again after the story broke and a swarm of press and paparazzi camped outside her house in a gated community in Atlanta.

She even compared herself to Britney Spears in a desperate call to 911.

“My last name is Andrews. I’m all over the news right now,” she told the 911 operator. “I’m the girl that was videotaped without her knowing, without her clothes on in the hotel. They’re looking at me through my window.”

Andrews says that when the operator asked if she was okay, she responded: “I did nothing wrong, and I’m being treated like . . . Britney Spears.”

“I just felt like I was continuing to be victimized,” Andrews tells Winfrey in the interview, which airs on Sept. 11.

Andrews, nicknamed “Erin Pageviews” for her popularity on the Internet, is also appearing in a GQ magazine spread this month.

The photos, taken before the Internet video was in the news, show Andrews wearing a football uniform covered in mud.

(source)

No one would have known that a sick voyeur had secretly videotaped ESPN reporter Erin Andrews nude in her hotel room, if the Mickey Mouse sports network hadn’t sent a letter to an obscure Web site demanding that it take down its link to a fuzzy video of an unidentified blonde. The video had gone largely unnoticed since it first went up in February, according to a girlie-posting site, DonChavez.com. Last Thursday, NSFWPOA.com, which had linked to the Andrews shots, got a letter from ESPN counsel David Pahl demanding the “pictures of a young, blonde woman” be removed. It didn’t take long for Web sites to identify the blonde as Andrews — and her lawyer soon confirmed it. ESPN rep Chris LaPlaca refused to admit the network had outed its own employee with its legal letter, but told us, “Any action we have or will undertake in this matter is in concert with Erin and her team.”

(source)

Sexy ESPN sportscaster Erin Andrews was the target of a peephole pervert who surreptitiously shot a video of her walking around her hotel room naked — and posted it on the Internet.

The sideline siren wants the creepy cameraman brought to justice, both for herself and to keep other victims from having to go through the same nightmare.

Andrews’ lawyer, Marshall B. Grossman, confirmed yesterday she was “surreptitiously videotaped” while “in the privacy of her hotel room.”

“Although the perpetrators of this criminal act have not yet been identified, when they are identified, she intends to bring both civil and criminal charges against them and against anyone who has published the material,” Grossman said.

In the video, Andrews is seen primping her hair and putting on her makeup.

The video and screen grabs first surfaced on the Internet under the title “Hot naked blonde who looks a lot like a sports blogger favorite in her hotel room,” according to the sports-and-gossip Web site Deadspin.

The site on which the images first appeared didn’t identify the woman as Andrews, whom Playboy calls “America’s Sexiest Sportscaster.”

But ESPN believes she was the victim of the crime.

It quickly got the video yanked by warning that it was taken by a peeping Tom — and that anyone circulating the film could be convicted as an accessory.

ESPN said Andrews “has been grievously wronged” and pledged to help with the investigation.

“Our people and resources are in full support of her as she deals with this abhorrent act,” a spokesman said yesterday.

At least one more version of the video, on YouTube, was also removed.

It’s been speculated that the video was taken in Omaha, Neb., last month while Andrews was covering the College World Series. But the local police department and US Attorney’s Office said no reports had been filed with them.

Meanwhile, voyeurs who tried to access the pictures after they were taken down were directed to sites that showed a blurry video of a naked, attractive blonde, touted as Andrews.

And when they clicked on the video, they got a computer virus.

“There are lots more sites out there pretending to host the Erin Andrews peephole but really hosting malicious software,” wrote Graham Cluley, of the anti-virus firm Sophos.

He said hackers took advantage of the instant celebrity status of the original video to circulate a fake. “And — surprise, surprise — if you visit those Web pages you could be putting the security of your computer at real risk,” he said.

Meanwhile, Andrews isn’t talking about the horrifying incident.

“We request respect of Erin’s privacy at this time, while she and her representatives are working with the authorities,” Grossman said.

(source)