Sportscaster Erin Andrews took the stand for the second day in a row for her $75-million lawsuit against a Nashville Marriott at Vanderbilt University. During her stay at the hotel in September 2008, her stalker Michael David Barrett altered the peephole to her room, recorded nude video of Andrews and posted it on the Internet.
Andrews' tearful testimony revealed that even though her career took off after the tapes were posted online, she still didn't think she would get over the emotional turmoil the situation cause her. In Andrews' case, the people on the jury will have to decide if they think the hotel should share some of the blame for Barrett being able to record the video of Andrews. The jury is also tasked with determining how much emotional turmoil Andrews went through because of the nude videos.
During the sportscaster's testimony on Tuesday, the lawyer who crossed-examined Andrews pointed out that her career had taken off since the videos were discovered in July 2009. Attorney Marc Dedman acknowledged the fact that since the videos were released, Andrews moved on to a more lucrative deal with Fox Sports and is now the host of the ABC show "Dancing with the Stars."
"You have done very well in your career since 2009?" Dedman asked.
"Yes," Andrews replied.
Andrews told Dedman that after the videos were discovered, she threw everything she had into her career, but even her success did not take away her anxiety and depression. She also told the court that she believed the entire situation could have been stopped by the hotel she was staying at.
"The Nashville Marriott could have just called me and said, 'We're putting this man that requested to be next to you [next door]: Is this okay?' And I could have called the cops and we could have caught him and could have stopped this," she testified.
During her time on the witness stand, Andrews said that till this day she remains on high alert when she stays at hotels and even mentioned the entire incident had a major effect on some of her relationships. The sportscaster is currently dating NHL player Jarret Stoll and got chocked up when she talked about how the "baggage" from the video has impacted her romantic relationships.
"I feel sad because I think [Jarret] would have loved the girl more that was there before this happened and I feel very guilty about that," she said. "He didn't know me before this happened and [it's hard] to try to explain to someone that has questions about why I have trust issues, why I'm insecure, why I'm humiliated, why I'm embarrassed, why I'm obsessive about checking the Internet."
