In taped testimony played for jurors Monday, former insurance salesman Michael David Barrett revealed just how easy it was for him to secretly film TV sportscaster Erin Andrews naked in her hotel room in Nashville, Tenn. He called his plan pretty “ill-conceived,” but said everything actually went off without a hitch until he tried to sell the footage. Barrett described calling Andrews through the hotel’s house phone and watching as her room number popped up on its screen, directing him to her floor.
He also explained how he doctored Andrews’ hotel-door peep-hole with a hacksaw and listened to her through the wall to know when she was in the shower.
Here are excerpts from his 2 1/2-hour taped deposition:
I knew who she was based on TV. She was on TV. I watch a lot of sports. That’s how I knew who she was.
I would guess probably at the start of 2008 . . . I thought I could videotape her and try and profit from the videotape. It was a pretty ill-conceived plan, obviously.
I saw her trending on Yahoo or something and realized she was as popular as she was. No particular reason. It was based on her popularity.
Why he went to Nashville, where she was, in September 2008:
I needed to make a business trip to Nashville. It was just on the calendar, and so it was just a convenient time to be there.
When I checked in, it was morning, and the hotel was very busy, so they said, “The room you requested is not available.” I got something to eat . . . I went down to the restaurant. There’s a house phone in the restaurant, so I picked up the house phone and called the operator, asked, “Can I have Erin Andrews’ room?” They connected me. On the house phone it shows a room number, so I knew what room she was in.
I went to that floor, the 10th floor, I believe. I had noticed the maid was cleaning the room next to her room. That person was checking out.
So I went back to the front desk and told them, “That room is open. Can I check into that room?” They said, “Let’s check and see,” and went back. After a few minutes, they came back out, and they checked me into that room.
I went to my room. As I was coming to the room, I could actually hear her talking on the phone, so I knew it was the right room.
I dealt with some things in my room. I heard the door slam close next to me . . . saw it was her leaving her room.
I took [her door’s] peephole out, altered it, put it back in and left shortly after.
I used a hacksaw to cut off the threads, so it was basically a plug, and put it back in.
I went back to the room, and, unfortunately for both of us, I could hear that the shower was on in her room when I walked by. I waited until the shower went off. Then I pulled out the plug [on her door] and waited for the opportunity. I waited for a matter of 10 seconds. I waited for her to be visible.
Why he stopped after 4¹/₂ minutes:
That was enough. I’m not proud of what I did. In my mind, I thought enough was enough.
Was it his conscience or did he believe he just had enough footage to make money?
Maybe that was it. It was probably a combination of all of the above. I tried to forget the whole thing. In my mind, enough was enough. I had enough to move forward. I guess that’s one way to put it.
Did he videotape other women?
I did, yes. Gradually, yes. I stopped a few months before I was arrested because I didn’t like what I was doing. I didn’t want to do it anymore. I guess my conscience got to me.
Why did he run a background check on Andrews?
I don’t know why. It was just stupid, but I did it.
Why did he post the video of Andrews even after he couldn’t sell it?
That is a great question, and I really have thought about it over the years, and I don’t have a good answer for it. I don’t know.
Why did he do it?
It was totally uncharacteristic of me. I thought to myself about a lot of things, and about how stupid I am. It just came to my head. There was stress at work, money problems. Things weren’t going well. The future was uncertain. There were a lot of changes happening. Not sure where I was going to fit in the future. There was restructuring. I was running out of money. I made some bad investments. I bought at house at the wrong time. I bought high and it crashed.
As I thought about it, as a pretty rational person, I thought it would cause a problem to her down the road. That was the thought process.
Obviously, there was a trail behind me. Any gumshoe could probably figure it out. It was stupid.