Erin Andrews' Stalker Made Vids of Other Women: Feds
Barrett struggled with reporters upon release from jail
By ANDREW GREINER
Updated 7:16 PM EDT, Mon, Oct 5, 2009
Erin Andrews' creepy stalker will go to his California court dates without an orange jumpsuit.
An Illinois judge released Michael David Barrett on $4,500 bond. But Barrett will have to wear an ankle bracelet and abide by a curfew until his October 23 appearance in California federal court. He has also been barred from using a computer until his next court appearance.
Barrett struggled with reporters after walking out of jail in Chicago on Monday. Feds have also charged that Barrett made nude videos of other women, and posted those online as well.
Barrett, a 47-year-old insurance company employee who was arrested at O'Hare International Airport on Friday for allegedly making nude videos of the blonde bombshell sportscaster while she was on assignment, has been in jail all weekend.
Barrett is accused of posting online the peephole videos which show Andrews changing, and then trying to sell them to TMZ.com. He faces interstate stalking charges in Los Angeles, where TMZ is based. If convicted, he could be sentenced to up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
His neighbors in a Chicago suburb said Sunday they were surprised by his arrest. Barrett kept his yard manicured, played golf and enjoyed cooking on a gas grill on a patio behind his $300,000 suburban Chicago town house. The normalcy of his life was what made the accusations so upsetting to neighbors and acquaintances.
"I'm totally shocked," said David Wayne, 72, a retired corporate executive who lives several doors down from Barrett. "He looked absolutely normal — nothing distinguishing."
Investigators believe Barrett recorded Andrews by aiming a cell phone camera through an altered peephole in the door of her hotel room.
There didn't appear to be anyone home Sunday at Barrett's two-story, two-garage house in Westmont, a leafy, middle-class suburb about 20 miles west of Chicago lined with quaint, gas-lamp replica street lights.
An FBI affidavit said Barrett specifically asked for a room next to Andrews at a Tennessee hotel where seven videos were likely taken, apparently through an altered peephole. An eighth video may have been shot at a Milwaukee hotel.
Today, Andrews lawyer, Marshall Grossman of the Los Angeles-based firm Bingham McCutchen, is laying blame on the hotel, as well.
"I think (the case) has significance far beyond Ms. Andrews," said Marshall Grossman of the Los Angeles-based law firm Bingham McCutchen.
The 35-page criminal complaint contains a section from the hotel computer records of Barrett's reservation that show a notation, "GST RQST TO RM NXT TO (Andrews)."
Grossman said the hotel should be held accountable for issuing "rooms at the end of the hall, in an alcove, where anyone would be free to do just about whatever they wanted to do in complete privacy."
He said the incident would "likely serve as a casebook study on poor hotel management."
Copyright Associated Press / NBC Connecticut
First Published: Oct 5, 2009 6:31 AM EDT on NBC Chicago
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