A jury awarded Fox sportscaster Erin Andrews $55 million Monday in a civil lawsuit she filed against a Nashville Marriott hotel after a stalker filmed her nude through her door's peephole in 2008.
The video was put online, where it was viewed millions of times, and Andrews sued the hotel and the stalker for $75 million for negligence, emotional distress and invasion of privacy.
The man who recorded her, Michael Barrett, admitted stalking Andrews and was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison. He confessed that he arranged with the hotel to stay in the room next to hers and altered the peephole in order to record her nude.
The defense team argued that Andrews' career had improved because of the video. The Chicago Tribune writes:
"The defense team's flawed premise in this case is basically that women in sports broadcasting are commonly sexualized, so of course Andrews would benefit from being exposed like this."
Andrews, meanwhile, countered that the video could make a mockery of her career. She testified in court, saying tearfully that the incident has negatively impacted her life.
"I feel so ashamed," she said in her testimony. "This happens every day of my life. Either I get a tweet, or somebody makes a comment in the paper, or somebody sends me a still of the video to my Twitter, or somebody screams it at me in the stands. And I'm right back to this."
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
