CHICAGO — ESPN reporter Erin Andrews, who was secretly videotaped nude while staying at hotels, filed a lawsuit Thursday against seven hotels and the suburban Chicago man who admitted making the tapes.
Andrews filed the suit in Cook County against the hotels for negligence and invasion of privacy, about seven months after Michael David Barrett, of Westmont, Ill., pleaded guilty in federal court in Los Angeles to interstate stalking.
Andrews’ lawsuit alleges the hotels confirmed where Barrett was staying and gave out her room number.
Andrews, who was recently a contestant on the ABC show “Dancing with the Stars,” is asking for more than $1.2 million from the hotels and Barrett for “severe and permanent emotional distress,” the complaint says.
Barrett pleaded guilty in December to renting hotel rooms next to Andrews in three cities, altering the peepholes and shooting videos in two locations — in Columbus, Ohio, in February 2008 and in Nashville, Tenn., seven months later. Prosecutors accused him of contacting 14 hotels asking for Andrews’ information.
He was accused of posting the videos online and trying to sell them to Los Angeles-based celebrity gossip site TMZ last year.
Barrett was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison in March.
Andrews said she hoped the lawsuit would force the hotels to be more vigilant when they check in a guest.
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