Michael David Barrett pleaded guilty
A federal judge sentenced an Illinois man to 2½ years in prison Monday for taping ESPN sports reporter Erin Andrews inside the nude.
The taping was held through a hotel-room peephole, and the video was posted on the net.
Michael David Barrett, 49, pleaded guilty to the federal stalking charge in December after prosecutors accused him of altering hotel peepholes so he could shoot video of Andrews while she was nude.
“I would have liked longer time, but I know that the judge obviously did the best he could with the parameters that are set,” Andrews told reporters outside the courthouse following a sentencing. “But I’m glad he’ll be away from anyone that he could harm for the next 30 months.”
In court papers, prosecutors stated that Barrett — an insurance company employee from Westmont, Illinois — posted as many as 10 videos of Andrews in the Internet.
Also in court papers, prosecutors said Barrett had posted videos of another 16 as-yet-unidentified victims into the Internet.
Barrett has been free on bail and have been ordered to are accountable to prison May 3, said Tom Mrozek, a spokesman for that U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles.
In the statement issued through his attorney when the plea agreement was announced, Barrett expressed “deep regret” to Andrews “for his conduct that caused her so much pain.”
Authorities believe that the majority of the videos were made at a hotel in Nashville, Tennessee, in September 2008. The peephole into Andrews’ room was altered using a hacksaw, and the images appeared to have been taken with a cell phone camera, according into the charges against Barrett.
Andrews travels across the country covering college football games for ESPN. In accordance with charges prosecutors filed against Barrett in October, she said that she became aware of the videos in July and that their posting caused her distress, anxiety and trouble sleeping.
Barrett came under scrutiny after attempting to sell the videos into the celebrity gossip site TMZ in January 2009. TMZ did not purchase the images, but employees of the Web site assisted in the investigation by providing information to Andrews’ attorneys, authorities said.
TMZ, like CNN, is a subsidiary of Time Warner Inc.
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