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FBI: Man arrested in ESPN reporter nude video case
LOS ANGELES – The FBI says they've arrested a Chicago-area man who is accused of taking surreptitious nude videos of ESPN reporter Erin Andrews in a hotel room.
The bureau says in a statement that 48-year-old Michael Barrett of Westmont, Ill., was arrested at Chicago's O'Hare Airport Friday night.
The FBI says Barrett faces federal charges of interstate stalking for taking the videos, posting the videos online and trying to sell them to celebrity Web site TMZ.com.
The charges were filed in Los Angeles.
Andrews is identified in the federal complaint as E.A.
The videos were taken through a modified peephole while Andrews was undressed in hotel rooms in Nashville, Tenn. and Milwaukee, Wisc., in 2008.
The charges were filed in Los Angeles, where TMZ is based. Andrews is identified in the federal complaint as E.A.
Barrett, 48, was arrested after returning from a trip to Buffalo, N.Y., authorities said.
Seven of the eight videos posted online were taken through a modified door peephole while the 31-year-old Andrews was alone and undressed in hotel rooms in Nashville, Tenn., in September 2008. Investigators believe the eighth video was taken in a hotel in Milwaukee in July 2008.
Several TV networks and newspapers aired brief clips or printed screen grabs from a blurry five-minute video in July.
FBI agents believe Barrett requested a Nashville hotel room next to Andrews' and rigged the door's peephole.
Barrett tried to sell the videos to TMZ, but an employee there told Andrews' attorneys, according to the complaint. FBI agents matched information in the e-mail to Barrett.
A message left at a phone listing for a Michael D. Barrett in Westmont, Ill., wasn't immediately returned Friday night. An ESPN spokesman contacted early Saturday said he wasn't aware of the arrest and the network would comment later that day.
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