FBI arrests Westmont man in ESPN nude video case
October 2, 2009
A Westmont man faces a charge of interstate stalking in producing nude videos of ESPN personality Erin Andrews apparently by altering peepholes in two hotel rooms, according to the FBI.
Michael David Barrett, 48, was arrested Friday at O'Hare International Airport after being named in a criminal complaint in U.S. District Court Los Angeles late Friday afternoon, according to a release from the Los Angeles field office of the FBI.
The FBI release does not specifically name Andrews, but identifies the victim in the case as an on-air personality with ESPN. One hotel room was believed to be in Nashville, but the FBI has not been able to identify the location of the second room where a video was shot, although records indicate Barrett booked a room at a Milwaukee hotel at the same time Andrews stayed there, according to an FBI affidavit in the case.
Barrett was linked to an e-mail account held by someone who tried to sell eight videos of Andrews to Web site TMZ.com, according to the FBI.
Seven of the eight videos appear to have been shot in a hotel room that the victim identified as in the Marriott Nashville at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee in September 2008, according to the FBI affidavit.
In July, the victim learned of the videos--which FBI investigation showed were posted on at least one Web site in March---and after watching them, "instantly thought they were videos of her," according to the FBI affidavit.
Andrews "thought that her career was over" after she saw the videos, and called her parents in a panic, according to the FBI.
Barrett, who was in federal custody in Chicago, was scheduled to appear before U.S. Magistrate Judge Arlander Keys on Saturday at 10 a.m. in federal court in Chicago.
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