An insurance executive agreed to plead guilty to stalking after secretly making nude videos of ESPN reporter Erin Andrews, court documents filed on Thursday said.
Michael Barrett, 48, of Illinois, will plead guilty in US District Court in Los Angeles on Tuesday, said Thom Mrozek, a spokesman with the US attorney’s office.
Barrett is suspected of renting hotel rooms adjacent to Andrews in three cities last year, altering the peepholes and shooting videos of Andrews in two of the locations — in Columbus, Ohio, in February last year, and in Nashville, Tennessee, seven months later. He adjusted a hotel peephole in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in July last year and called 14 hotels to find out where Andrews was staying, prosecutors said.
Barrett is accused of uploading the videos to the Internet and trying to sell them to the Los Angeles-based celebrity gossip site TMZ this year. Several TV networks and newspapers aired or published images of Andrews taken from the videos.
“Mr Barrett accepts full responsibility for his conduct,” Barrett’s attorney David Willingham said. “He apologizes to Ms Andrews and expresses his deep regret for his conduct that caused her so much pain. It is his sincere hope that these events can now become an opportunity to make positive changes in his life.”
Barrett could face up to five years in federal prison and a fine of US$250,000. As long as he accepts his responsibility for his actions, shows remorse and stays out of trouble, however, prosecutors will recommend a sentence of 27 months in prison, Assistant US Attorney Wesley Hsu said.
Barrett will have to pay full restitution to Andrews, according to the terms of the plea agreement, but the amount is unclear. He also would be subject to a three-year protective order that would bar him from contacting or coming within 100m of Andrews and her family.
Attorney Marshall Grossman, who represents Andrews, said that his client and her father would attend Tuesday’s hearing and may ask the judge to impose a harsher sentence.
“We are pleased that the government has been able to obtain a guilty plea from Mr Barrett,” Grossman said. “We are now reviewing the agreement reached between Mr Barrett and prosecutors, and Erin reserves the right to address the court and urge a greater penalty.”
Federal prosecutors in Los Angeles have agreed not to pursue further charges against Barrett.
However, he could face criminal action in other states stemming from other videos he allegedly shot of unsuspecting nude women through peepholes.
Hsu said dozens of videos were later posted on the Internet, including one of a naked woman, that FBI agents sought to have Yahoo Inc turn over after serving a search warrant at the tech giant’s Northern California offices last week.
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