Fox Sportscaster who was filmed nude by stalker from room peephole, Erin Andrews, wins $55million compensation fromMarriott in law suit

A jury awarded Erin Andrews $55 million in a lawsuit over a secret nude recording taken of her in a hotel room

Erin Andrews wins $55million from Marriott owners

Co-host of 'dancing with the Stars' in Civil lawsuit, sought $75 million in damages from the owner and operator of Nashville, TN hotel

Stalker filmed her nude after tampering with hotel room door peephole, 2008. Video later posted online.

Photo: AP

She tearfully testified that she was humiliated, shamed and suffers from depression as a result of the video, which has been viewed by millions of people online 

West End Hotel Partners, which owns and operates the Nashville Marriott at Vanderbilt University, claimed the responsibility for the crime lay with Michael David Barrett, who used a hacksaw to tamper with her room's peephole. 

Jurors started their deliberations Monday after two weeks of emotional testimony and came back with the result shortly afterwards.

They heard directly from the Fox Sports reporter and co-host of the TV show 'Dancing with the Stars,' who tearfully testified that she was humiliated, shamed and suffers from depression as a result of the video, which has been viewed by millions of people online.

Andrews' parents described for jurors the terror they and their daughter felt after learning of the video but not knowing who took it, where it was shot and if someone was still watching their daughter.

An FBI investigation would later reveal that Michael David Barrett shot videos in hotels in Nashville and Columbus, Ohio, and posted them online. The trial focuses on the Nashville Marriott at Vanderbilt and video.

On Friday, Davidson County Circuit Court Judge Hamilton Gayden found Barrett at fault. 

Today, jurors decided that the hotel owner, West End Hotel Partners, and former operator, Windsor Capital Group, should share in some of the blame. The hotel is a franchise and Marriott is not part of the trial.

Andrews filed a $75 million lawsuit against the franchise owner and manager of a luxury hotel and a man who admitted to making secret nude recordings of her in 2008

Sportscaster and television host Erin Andrews, center, stands with attorney Scott Carr, left, as the jury enters the courtroom on Monday

Andrews, center, leaves the courtroom after her lawsuit was given over to the jury on Monday

Attorneys for the companies argued that while what happened to Andrews was terrible, the convicted stalker should be solely to blame because he was a determined criminal. The attorneys also suggested that Andrews' rise in her career shows she did not suffer severe and permanent distress.

Andrews said Barrett's arrest and imprisonment did not make the nightmare go away. She broke down on the stand repeatedly, saying she continues to suffer because people are still watching the videos and taunting her about them.

'This happens every day of my life,' Andrews said tearfully. 'Either I get a tweet or somebody makes a comment in the paper or somebody sends me a still video to my Twitter or someone screams it at me in the stands and I'm right back to this. I feel so embarrassed and I am so ashamed.'

Barrett pleaded guilty to stalking Andrews, altering hotel room peepholes and taking nude videos of her. He was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison.

Andrews has maintained that someone at the hotel gave out her room number to Barrett and honored his request to be placed near hear. She said no one ever told her that he asked to be in an adjoining or connecting room. Had she known that, she said she would've called police.

Paula and Steven Andrews, the parents of sportscaster and television host Erin Andrews, walk to the courtroom Monday

Barrett was a Chicago-area insurance company executive who frequently traveled around the country when he took the video of Andrews at the Nashville hotel in September 2008. He shot about four and a half minutes of nude video of her while she was inside a room that was in an alcove off a main hallway.

Barrett didn't show up for the trial. In his videotaped deposition, he said that he alone was to blame. He said he correctly guessed that she would be at the hotel — it was the closest one to the Vanderbilt football game Andrews was covering — by calling and pretending to be in a group with Andrews and asking for confirmation of the reservations.

He said he used an in-house employee phone to learn her room number, and made a request to be in the room next to Andrews.

During closing arguments, one of Andrews' lawyers said Barrett tried to take all of the blame because he holds a grudge against her over his conviction and doesn't want her to win any money.

Barrett said he posted the recordings online after celebrity gossip website TMZ refused to buy them. The only reason he picked Andrews, he said, was because she was popular and he saw that she was trending on Yahoo.

Andrews walks to the courtroom with attorneys Bruce Broillet, left, and Scott Carr, center, on Monday

Courtesy: Mail