On Monday, a jury awarded Fox sportscaster Erin Andrews $55 million in her lawsuit against a stalker and the owner of the Nashville Marriott hotel where said stalker recorded nude videos of her.
Andrews was seeking $75 million in damages for the traumatic 2008 incident which, Andrews?s lawyer argued, happened after the hotel negligently placed her stalker, Michael David Barrett, in the Marriott room directly next to hers. Andrews was in Nashville at the time to cover a September college football game for ESPN. The footage that was secretly recorded through a peephole was subsequently put online and viewed approximately 17 million times around the world, according to the forensic computer expert who testified.
Andrews told the jury that she has suffered depression as a result of the video, and feels humiliated on a daily basis.
?This happens every day of my life,? Andrews testified, according to the Associated Press. ?Either I get a tweet or somebody makes a comment in the paper or somebody sends me a still video to my Twitter or someone screams it at me in the stands and I?m right back to this. I feel so embarrassed and I am so ashamed.?
Andrews told the jury that she is so haunted by the incident that she has her hotel rooms checked for recording devices when she travels. She also alleged that her former employer ESPN demanded that she do a sit-down interview clarifying that the video was not a publicity stunt before returning to work.
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Erin Andrews Awarded $55 Million Over Nude Peephole Video | Vanity Fair