Fox Sports reporter Erin Andrews is seeking $75 million from the Marriott International in connection with a Sept. 2008 incident where she was secretly videotaped while naked through the peephole of a hotel room.
Andrews revealed the amount she is asking for while filing a complaint in Nashville Circuit Court on Tuesday, according to documents obtained by The Smoking Gun. In Dec. 2011, Andrews filed a lawsuit against the Marriott International and several other defendants, claiming that they were guilty of negligence and invasion of privacy following her incident with Michael David Barrett.
Barrett had rented the room next to Andrews and reportedly adjusted the keyhole and placed a camera inside the hole in order to capture the footage. Andrews, who joined the cast of "Dancing With the Stars" as co-host, is claiming that employees of the Marriott played a role in Barrett's actions by confirming that she was staying at the hotel and also providing Barrett with her room number.
"Andrews alleges that Marriott workers helped facilitate Barrett's videotaping by first revealing that she was a guest at the Nashville hotel, then disclosing her room number, and finally by agreeing to Barrett's request to be placed in the room next door to the broadcaster," the Smoking Gun reported. "Andrews, then working for ESPN, was in town to cover a Vanderbilt University football game."
Barrett posted the explicit clips online, which forced the FBI to open an investigation, The New York Daily News reported. He was later sentenced to 30 months in prison after pleading guilty to felony stalking charges in 2009, and was also forced to register as a sex offender.
The case lists Barrett, Mariott, West End Hotel Partners, and Windsor Capital Group as defendants. According to The Smoking Gun, former ESPN colleagues Chris Fowler, Craig James, Jesse Palmer and Maksim Chmerkovskiy, who was Andrews partner on "DWTS" in 2010, are set to be witnesses.
The trial is set for next year February - which is four years after her lawsuit was filed - and is expected to last ten days.
