Fox Sports reporter and television personality Erin Andrews is in a Nashville, Tenn., courtroom on Monday (Feb. 22) regarding jury selection for the negligence lawsuit she issued against a Marriott hotel, in which she's seeking $75 million. The hotel ownership company, Windsor Capital Group, is named in the suit as well, along with Michael David Barrett, an Illinois insurance executive who secretly shot nude videos of the reporter, who was working for ESPN at the time.
In 2008, Andrews visited Nashville to cover a Vanderbilt University football game. In her lawsuit, filed two years later, Andrews accuses the hotel and others of allowing Barrett, then 50 years old, to book rooms next to hers, rig peepholes and film videos of her changing clothes, reports USA Today.
Court documents say Barrett then posted those videos on the Internet.
Andrews' case cites emotional distress and invasion of privacy, according to WSMV-TV 4 in Nashville.
In 2010, Barrett, pleaded guilty to stalking Andrews, and was sentenced to 30 months in prison for creating the video, which was shot through a peephole looking into Andrews' hotel room during the incident.
Barrett admitted to 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.
Andrews testified that Barrett's actions had a devastating impact on her and her family because she is constantly reminded his videos appeared online, and is subjected to cruel taunts from sports fans when she works as a sideline reporter.
"You violated me and you violated all women," Andrews told Barrett at the time. "You are a sexual predator, a sexual deviant and they should lock you up."
After the sentencing, Andrews said, "Thirty months isn't enough.
She originally listed Marriott International as a defendant, but a Tennessee judge dismissed her claim against the hotel company in January, saying it was not responsible for security at a local hotel.
The trial is expected to last about 10 days.
