Michael David Barrett has been arrested for secretly videotaping Erin Andrews, an ESPN reporter. Barrett was taken into custody at Chicago O'Hare International Airport on Friday. See video below. See update 12-15-09 below.
Andrews' lawyer, Marshall Grossman from the law firm Bingham & McCutchen, tells TMZ Barrett allegedly contacted hotels in the various venues "where Andrews was working in order to locate her and her room number -- and some of the hotels revealed that information, permitting him to target her." Grossman says Barrett would remove the peepholes from the doors -- or as the complaint states, "hacked off" -- and inserted tiny camera devices to secretly film her.
I see lawsuits in the future of a Nashville hotel.
Barrett is a resident of Westmon, Illinois. He is accused of federal charges of interstate stalking, taking illegal videos and posting them online, and attempts to sell and distribute the videos. He makes his first court appearance today at 10 a.m. CDT. Charges were filed in Los Angeles where the videos first surfaced as Michael David Barrett attempted to sell the videos to TMZ.
More details coming.
Background: The New Post, in July 2009, claimed that "ESPN Outed Erin Video." Everything went downhill from there for Ms. Andrews. The NY Post's take was that Ms. Andrew's attorney caused the problem by sending a letter to an "obscure website," demanding that the website take down a link showing a video of unidentified blonde. According to this report, the video went up "unnoticed" in February, so Erin's attorney was to blame. Right.
Update 10-3-09 7:40 a.m. CDT:
Barrett is accused of making 8 videos! At least 7 of them were taken in a Nashvill hotel in September 2008. The penalty for interstate stalking is 5 years in federal prison, according to the FBI. Barrett checked into a room adjacent to Andrews at the Nashville hotel and used his home address to register.
Update 10-3-09: Still no photo available of Michael David Barrett. Barrett's attorney is Rick Beuke Barrett is a long-time friend of his and the charges were surprising - "a great fried good man." Beuke also says "there is a lan that stretches around the block of people willing to support him." I wonder if any of them viewed the videos?
Barrett is accused of making 8 videos! At least 7 of them were taken in a Nashvill hotel in September 2008. The penalty for interstate stalking is 5 years in federal prison, according to the FBI. Barrett checked into a room adjacent to Andrews at the Nashville hotel and used his home address to register.
Update 10-3-09: Still no photo available of Michael David Barrett. Barrett's attorney is Rick Beuke Barrett is a long-time friend of his and the charges were surprising - "a great fried good man." Beuke also says "there is a lan that stretches around the block of people willing to support him." I wonder if any of them viewed the videos?
Wouldn't you know a slimey scuz-ball like Barrett would have an alias? Mark Bennett is apparently a name he uses at times. No info and when or why he uses an alias. According to this report he does not have a criminal record.The same reports says that the second hotel where Andrews was filmed was in Milwaukee. So far, I haven't found one retraction from the creeps who insisted that the videos were a publicity stunt. After this invasion of Andrew's privacy - she was forced to "insist" that she would "never do this to herself." Obviously, I'm forced to chat about Andrews because there is little new news about Barrett.
Update 12-15-09:
Michael David Barrett pled guilty today. Erin Andrews and her attorney say that Barrett has done this same thing before - from her attorney, Marshall Grossman: "there are well over a dozen other women who have been surreptitiously filmed and stalked by Mr. Barrett." There were no details of how Grossman knows this.
|