Erin Andrews couldn't conceal her emotions in the courtroom on Thursday as her $75 million civil lawsuit proceeded.
|
ADVERTISEMENT
|
Alleging negligence and invasion of privacy, Andrews sued West End Partners, who own the Nashville Marriott at Vanderbilt University where she was staying, as well as the Windsor Capital Group, who manage the hotel.
Andrews accused hotel employees of disclosing her room number to convicted stalker Michael Barrett, who in turn booked the room next door and gouged peepholes into her door. Barrett was already sentenced back in 2010 to two-and-a-half years in prison.
Jurors watched the two videos Barrett had recorded and posted online on Thursday. One was a four-and-a-half minute video shot in September 2008 at the Nashville Marriott and the other was a six-second clip filmed at a hotel in Ohio, according to the newspaper. Andrews was traveling both times to cover college football for ESPN.
The videos were reportedly shown under highly-controlled conditions so only the jurors and attorneys could see the footage.
Bernard Jansen, a computer scientist and professor at Penn State, announced in court that an estimated 16.8 million people worldwide viewed the peephole videos or still photos taken from them between July 2009 and January 2016. His research also reportedly showed 376,000 people watched the videos in the last six months alone and someone is "watching them right now."
Jansen was paid $300 per hour to conduct such research, according to The Tennessean, and he worked for about 100 hours on Andrews' case.
Testimony reveals Andrews' father, Steve Andrews, believes the intrusive videos made his daughter "terrified" and "depressed." Steve also called the 37-year-old Dancing with the Stars host a "shell" of her former self.
About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski
