NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Sportscaster and TV host Erin Andrews testified on Tuesday that she doesn't think she'll ever get over the emotional fallout that came after a stalker secretly took nude videos of her and put them on the Internet.
The stalker was able to get the videos after altering hotel room door peepholes, removing them and placing his cell phone camera against the empty hole.
Andrews has filed a $75 million lawsuit against the stalker and the owner and manager of the Marriott at Vanderbilt. She blames the hotel companies after the stalker altered the peephole while she stayed in Nashville to cover college football for ESPN.
During testimony in the civil trial, Andrews said she remains on guard every time she stays in a hotel during her extensive business travels.
Andrews said she immediately asks to change rooms as soon as she checks into a hotel. She said she refuses to let anyone inside the room, and she sweeps it for cameras or "booby traps."
Andrews told jurors Monday that it ripped her apart when some said they thought the videos were a publicity stunt. She broke down, saying she's anxious and depressed, and gets taunted by people who've seen the videos.
The hotel companies say what happened is terrible but the stalker is to blame.
Jurors heard from the stalker earlier Monday during recorded depositions played in court. In the videos played before the jury, Michael David Barrett testified that he took the secret nude videos of Andrews so he could make money.
Barrett spent more than 2 1/2 years in federal prison after he admitted to renting hotel rooms next to Andrews three times and shooting nude videos of her in Nashville and Columbus, Ohio, and posting them on the Internet.
He was an executive with a Chicago-area insurance company when he shot the footage of Andrews in the Nashville hotel in September 2008.
