TV personality Erin Andrews settles video stalker case: reports

[April 26, 2016]  (Reuters) - Television personality Erin Andrews has reached a settlement with the owner and operator of the Nashville hotel where a nude video of her that went viral was secretly recorded, according to media reports on Monday.

Terms of the agreement are confidential and the matter is now over, according to newspaper the Tennessean, the ABC TV affiliate in Nashville and E! News - all of which cited Andrews' lawyer. He could not immediately be reached for comment by Reuters.

A jury in March found the Nashville Marriott at Vanderbilt University liable for the video and awarded Andrews $55 million in damages to be paid by the hotel and the man who shot the video.

The settlement was reached hours before lawyers were expected to return to court for an issue that could have left the hotel companies paying more, the Tennessean reported.

Andrews sued the Nashville Marriott at Vanderbilt University over a 2008 video taken by a stalker in an adjoining room and posted on the Internet in 2009. Andrews, a Fox Sports personality who formerly worked for ESPN, had sought $75 million in damages.

The video was taken by Michael David Barrett, who pleaded guilty in 2009 to stalking Andrews and making the video. He was sentenced to 30 months in prison.

Barrett asked the hotel to put him in a room next to Andrews' after an employee confirmed that she was staying there on a certain date. He rigged a peephole to shoot the video of Andrews while she was changing.

The parties who were found liable were West End Hotel Partners, the investment group that owned the Nashville Marriott, and the operating company of the hotel at the time, Windsor Capital Group. Marriott International Inc was originally named in Andrews' lawsuit, but the judge removed it.

The jury found that the hotel is liable for 49 percent of the $55 million in damages, or $26.95 million, while Barrett is liable for 51 percent of the damages, equivalent to $28.05 million.

(Reporting by Suzannah Gonzales in Chicago; Editing by Matthew Lewis)

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