^^Said the stalker.
So no one gave him her room number; it was a system error, basically. What’s weird, however, is that he was able to wander up to the floor where her room was located and see what room he’d like to be in, then request that room and get it. I know people want rooms “far from the elevator,” or “not on the first floor,” but a specific room number? That’s weird. I’m surprised the front desk people just gave it to him.
MOWC: Thanks for your insights.
I’ve never tried asking for a specific room after wandering a hotel. Maybe that’s a new strategy.
If have thought with all her travel, she’d be on a concierge floor–maybe he had such privileges too.
A system error that displays the room you are calling seems a major flaw to me, if they claim not to disclose room #s, which most hotels I’ve stayed at claim (even puny hotels).
75 Million is obviously excessive. But all due respect to MOWC, I think 50K would be insulting. When I worked for a PI lawyer, I saw more than that for “emotional pain” in really dubious suits.I think Erin understandably felt violated and humiliated. The ongoing public discourse about the attributes of her body, etc., is horrible, and not something she ever deserved. The fact that she has not lost her job or professional appeal doesn’t necessarily mitigate her own personal emotional distress and feelings of being abused and violated. Many many people have viewed this video that she never consented to have taken. If I were her, I don’t know that I could get out of bed and face the world, even though I’d know that I didn’t do anything wrong.
I don’t know what the "right " number is. But imo it should be fairly significant.
HIMom- you have no idea how much Marriott offered. It was not at all minimal. And there is absolutely no proof of economic harm. She has a very successful public career. There was a lot of harm to her- but it isn’t economic.
I’m not defending Marriott. I honestly don’t know how negligent they were. I didn’t hear all the testimony. That’s why there is a jury. This is ONE hotel. If you think you are safer from a person like this stalker at a Hilton or a Ritz, then go for it! This guy is the guilty party and he himself took all the blame.
I am a lawyer in this jurisdiction and a really large verdict against Marriott would surprise me. I’ve certainly been wrong, though!
@MOWC My understanding is that he didn’t just film her at one hotel. He also filmed her at the Radison. The video was on his computer when he was arrested. He just hadn’t posted it on the internet yet.
Someone DID tell him WHEN she would be staying at the hotel. He didn’t just happen to be there at the same time. I think that’s negligence.
What I don’t get is why TMZ didn’t call the police when the perp offered to sell it the video.
As someone who used to work in domestic violence, the fact that he was able to track her down so easily scares the crap out of me.
It is unfathomable to me in this day and age that there are not safe guards in place. Not even basic safeguards like confirming with a guest before connecting or not having the room number accessible.
Do I think it’s 75MM worth? No, probably not. But if it’ll convince hotels to do a better security job, I say go for it.
If the house phones showed room numbers, that’s worse, IMO, than if an employee gave it to the guy. And I’ve never seen such a thing (room numbers showing on phones.
Either way, it was quite negligent for them to allow him to obtain her room number.
As a hotel employee, the only time I ever encountered people asking for a specific room was in the case of regular guests. Some random dude asking for a specific room number would seem pretty odd.
He must have got a hold of a phone that was meant to be used by employees or guests only. I stay at Marriotts a lot. Lobby and hallway phones do not have any displays that would show room numbers. It is a safety feature.
Specific room number request is not that weird. “My coworker is staying on the 10th floor… He just walked back to his room and texted that room 1054 is being cleaned. Is it possible to get that room by any chance?”
IMO, I do not think Erin is after the $$. She would have settled if that was the case. She wanted to testify and remind the world know how traumatic the whole thing was for her and that she did not profit from it one bit. This is her therapy session - the video is out there, it is as curable as an HSV infection, what does she have to lose?
How can anyone determine that there was no economic damage to her career? How can it be determined how successful her career would’ve been had this not happened? If frequent travel is required as part of her job , and she has difficulty staying at hotels, I think it would be difficult to say that her career has not been affected. If she were a male professional athlete would that argument still be used? I think being a young, attractive female is not helping her case, but hurting it. And I respectfully disagree that the stalker is the guilty party and he is the only one to blame.
It is still not clear to me how he got her room number. Some articles state an employee gave it to him and others say the employee only confirmed she was staying there, and then he got the actual room number by using the in-house phone. I think that does make a difference.
This Barrett guy is very bad - he has done this to over a dozen women. He testified in Andrews’ case he did it for the money, but when TMZ refused to purchase the video he vindictively put it up on the internet. What was his purpose in doing that? 30 months in jail does not seem enough considering all the women he has filmed in this manner. And although he is also a named defendant in this suit, he has no money so he is essentially “judgment proof.” Seems he gets off easy and leaves the hotels cleaning up his mess.
NB: No one knows how he actually got the phone number. He SAYS now he got it from the house phone. This is just testimony, not proven fact. Plaintiff’s closing suggests his testimony is not believable. http://www.tennessean.com/story/news/2016/03/04/erin-andrews-case-role-stalker-key-closing-arguments/81316248/
IMO, it’s entirely possible he’s lying in order to protect the person who gave him the info. There’s apparently some document showing that he requested a room next to Erin Andrews when he made the reservation.
It was no secret that the ESPN crew was staying at the Vanderbilt Marriott. Bunsen is correct- it was an employee house phone. They did not prove economic damage. You can’t just speculate on that.
She was harmed. No doubt about that. She is traumatized every time she goes to a hotel.
Should hotels have an armed guard on every floor? What is the standard of care? These are all issues.
I’m confused, was the spying through a tampered peephole in the regular door, or through one of those creepy “adjoining” double doors?
I would think a regular door. I’ve never seen peep holes in adjoining doors.
I think that $1.00 per internet viewing would be a fair amount. It is terrible. Her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren can see that video. The whole thing disgusts me. How sad for her.
<<<
This explains exactly how he got her room number (in at least one of the instances):
http://pagesix.com/2016/02/29/erin-andrews-stalker-revealed-his-creepy-peephole-techniques/
"While waiting for his room, Barrett said he went to the hotel restaurant, where he found a house phone that displays room numbers and called the operator.
“Can I have Erin Andrews’ room?” he recalled asking.
“They connected me,” Barrett continued. “On the house phone it shows a room number, so I knew what room she was in.”
Barrett went to the 10th-floor room and saw that a maid was cleaning the one next door, so he requested to stay there.
“So I went back to the front desk and told them about the room,” he explained. “They went back and verified for me that it was ready, and they checked me into that room.”
He knew he’d been put next to Andrews, because he could “hear her talking on the phone” on his way in, he said. Their rooms were in an alcove, hidden from view by anyone standing in the hallway, Barrett said."
[/QUOTE]
Well, the hotel is liable if their house phones (like the one in the restaurant) show room numbers. Certainly the hotel should have known that.
The fact that the rooms were in an alcove explains how he was able to spy w/o others in a typical hotel hallway would notice. I always wondered about that aspect.
How did he know each time which hotel she (and maybe other ESPN staff) would be staying in? I know that when ESPN travels to smaller towns, there often isn’t many nicer choices to put their staff in, but in decent sized towns there probably would have been several possibilities.
I’m disappointed that there is not more discussion on how common internet videos of women taken without their knowledge is becoming. My son has a friend who was sent a link to a video of herself changing out her bathing suit (there was, it seems, a phone set up in the bathroom of a pool party). This is a young woman of some resource, and she has not been able to do anything about it. The site is based in China, and there are hundreds, if not thousands, of unnamed women in such videos…and she is held up by the fear that any attempt to have it taken down will only forever link her name to the video. She has been affected to the point that she is considering a leave of absence from her first year at med school.
This is a “thing” that can affect anyone.
I’ve been to several hotels where you can ONLY get up to the rooms in the elevator with a room key. Don’t know if you can get up via the stairs. But its pretty easy to make the elevators (going up) accessible only with a room key. And in some hotels, like some in Vegas, you have to show your key to a guard at the elevators in order to get in the elevator. These safety options are quite doable, IMO.
But you can usually get off at any floor once you are in the elevator.
Only if someone else has used their room key card to select a floor. An then you can get off only on the floors selected.