A jury has awarded Erin Andrews $55 million in her lawsuit over a secretly recorded nude video that a stalker took of her in a hotel room and posted online.
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A United States jury awarded $55 million in damages Monday to a prominent sports broadcaster after a stalker secretly filmed her nude in a hotel, media reports said.
Jurors found Barrett 51% at fault and the hotel owners West End Hotel Partners 49%, with the damages bill split accordingly.
The jury of seven women and five men deliberated for seven hours after the nine-day negligence trial.
Andrews released a statement on her Twitter account following the jury’s verdict that thanked the Nashville court, her family, her friends, her legal team and victims from around the world for their support. The hotel is a franchise.
“Her career skyrocketed, her career went up, so from our perspective, none of the benchmarks that would indicate a serious mental injury existed”, said one of the lawyers. He said that he was not sure if the Nashville Marriott or its ownership company would end up filing for bankruptcy.
At the time of the incident, Andrews worked for ESPN.
Andrews originally included Marriott International in her lawsuit, but the judge dismissed the company saying it wasn’t responsible for security at a property operated by a franchisee.
The video has reportedly been the subject of more than 300 million searches and viewed around 17 million times.
Andrews works for Fox Sports and co-hosts TV’s “Dancing with the Stars”.
Barrett has already served a two-and-a-half year sentence in the Seattle Community Justice Center Department of Corrections for pleading guilty to federal interstate stalking charges. She has maintained that the stalker and two hotel companies were to blame. Before Barrett’s arrest in October 2009, some were suggesting Andrews did it as a publicity stunt – something she has said caused her an enormous amount of grief. Andrews kept the management responsible for confirming to Barrett that Andrews was within the hotel and allowing him to book a room next to hers without informing the reporter. He testified he acted alone but the hotel put him in a room next to Andrews per his request and allegedly provided other personal information.
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Since the beginning of the case, there have been quite a few details that have come out regarding what happened, but thankfully the court sided with Miz Andrews and she was VERY appreciative of all the love and support she’s received.
