In an unusual premises liability case, ESPN reporter Erin Andrews has sued the operators of three hotels for allowing a stalker to surreptitiously videotape her naked through peepholes in the doors to her rooms.

Erin Andrews

Michael David Barrett, a former insurance salesman, shot the video of Andrews while she was staying at the Blackwell Inn of Columbus, Ohio, the Radisson Hotel Milwaukee Airport, and the Marriott Nashville at Vanderbilt University. He removed the eyepiece from peepholes, creating an opening through which he was able to aim a cell phone camera.

In a lawsuit filed July 15 against the owners of the three hotels, Andrews alleges hotel employees breached their duty of care toward her by, among other things, disclosing to Barrett that she was a guest, placing him in rooms next to hers, and failing to discover his tampering with the peepholes.

The complaint seeks at least $50,000 in damages for negligence, negligent infliction of emotional distress, and invasion of privacy. The hotels “facilitat[ed] Barrett's conduct by intentionally placing him in the room next to Plaintiff Erin Andrews,” it says.

Barrett, who posted some of his footage of Andrews dressing and undressing on the Internet, was sentenced to 2-1/2 years in prison after pleading guilty to interstate stalking in December.

Hotel keepers generally have a duty “to protect an invitee from injury caused by the misconduct of employees, customers, and third persons if there is any reasonable apprehension of danger from the conduct of said persons or if injury could be prevented by the proprietor through the exercise of ordinary care and diligence.”

The ease with which Barrett gained access to Andrews is one of the many disturbing aspects of the case. According to the suit, he simply called the hotels to identify where she would be staying and then “requested that his room be placed next to the room of Plaintiff.”

But while Andrews can certainly show lapses in security, the hotels could argue there was no way they could discover Barrett's alterations to the peepholes.

An unmodified, standard peephole consists of two pieces — an outer cylindrical sleeve and an inner cylindrical eyepiece that screws into the sleeve. According to an FBI affidavit, Barrett shortened the length of the eyepiece so it “could be quickly and easily removed from the door without much noise.”

The FBI agent who examined the peephole in the door of the room where Andrews stayed at the Marriott Nashville in September 2008 found tool marks “where it appeared that the eyepiece cylinder was sawed through.”

The affidavit makes clear that Barrett removed the shortened eyepiece and then filmed Andrews through the opening in the door. By putting the eyepiece back in the outer sleeve, he could cover up his alterations — making it highly unlikely that even the sharpest-eyed hotel employee would spot something was amiss.

The peephole tampering at the Marriott Nashville still hadn't been discovered when FBI investigators visited the hotel in August 2009 — nearly a year after Andrews stayed there.

Hotels have been found liable for failing to regularly monitor a video surveillance system. Andrews does not allege the hotels where she stayed had knowledge of “prior substantially similar incidents” of one guest spying on another through altered peepholes from which a duty to monitor peepholes could arise.

By Matthew Heller
7/18/10