Illinois man arrested in Erin Andrews voyeur case

To those who know him, Michael David Barrett is a stocky 47-year-old traveling insurance salesman, a divorced father who had settled into a gated, well-kept Westmont, Ill., town house with someone new.

Federal authorities, however, say Barrett also harbored an obsession with ESPN personality Erin Andrews. They accused him of booking neighboring hotel rooms around the country, using a saw to alter her room's peepholes, surreptitiously videotaping the undressed glamorous college sports sideline reporter and trying to cash in on the naked videos online.

On Saturday, prosecutors revealed what they say was Barrett's secret life as he faced a judge on interstate stalking charges in the sensational case involving Andrews, a Web celebrity before the videos surfaced this summer and an Oprah guest who told her cautionary tale after it.

Barrett's family is baffled.

"I never had any reason to believe that anything like this would happen. This is clear out of the blue," said his father, 78-year-old Frank Barrett, from his Portland, Ore. home in interviews with the Chicago Tribune and WGN-TV. "It's like the little robot (in) 'Lost in Space'...does not compute, does not compute, does not compute."

In court, a tanned Barrett appeared calm as he answered "Yes, sir" to a question from U.S. Magistrate Judge Arlander Keys during a five-minute hearing.

Barrett's attorney, who describes himself as a longtime friend, said he's gotten calls from many of Barrett's friends who are willing to help secure his release on bail.

"He's very concerned about the allegations, obviously, as anybody who has never been in trouble before would be," attorney Richard Beuke said. "I don't think Mike's ever had a parking ticket before in his life. So these are obviously serious allegations, and they're going to be taken seriously and we'll deal with the allegations at the appropriate time."

While Beuke waits to talk to him at length Sunday, Barrett will remain in the downtown federal lockup until at least Monday. That's when a hearing will be held to determine whether Barrett gets to fly to California to face the charges on his own or is taken there in federal custody.

Authorities arrested Barrett at O'Hare International Airport on Friday night as he returned from Buffalo. Barrett was named in a criminal complaint filed in Los Angeles federal court.

Andrews, who worked as a sideline reporter for the Auburn-Tennessee football game Saturday night, released a statement thanking FBI agents and prosecutors and said she hoped the case will help others who have been similarly victimized.

The developments came as a surprise in a case that first gained national attention in July when videos that appeared to be shot from a hotel room peephole became publicized after apparently sitting unnoticed online since February.

Seven of the eight videos, which officials believe were taken with a cell phone camera, appear to have been shot in a hotel room at the Marriott Nashville in September 2008, an FBI affidavit states.

Investigators said Barrett had requested and received a room next door to Andrews.

The peephole, which is made up of two pieces screwed into each other, apparently had been removed and shortened with a saw, the affidavit states.

Although the location of the second hotel room has not been definitively identified, records indicate Barrett booked_but did not check into_a Milwaukee hotel room at the same time the victim stayed there in July 2008, the affidavit states. That peephole was altered in a similar fashion, authorities said.

Barrett then contacted Los Angeles-based gossip site TMZ.com from a Yahoo e-mail address in late January, offering to sell the videos. Under the pseudonym Mark Bennett, Barrett was linked to the e-mail account, the FBI said.

Andrews, in an appearance on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" last month, said she thought her career was over once the nude footage of her began circulating on the Internet.

"I kept screaming: 'I'm done. My career is over. I'm done. Get it off. Get it off the Internet,'" she said, recalling a conversation with her father. "They thought I was physically injured, (that's) how bad I was screaming."

Andrews told the FBI she had never met Barrett.

He's an Oregon native who works in sales at Glenview-based Combined Insurance Co. "We've been contacted by the FBI and we're cooperating. ... and will continue to do so," said company spokeswoman Amy Burrell-Tichy.

Barrett's ex-wife had no comment Saturday.

Barrett lives in a two-story town home in a leafy neighborhood near the Westmont-Oak Brook border. No one answered Saturday and neighbors said they don't really know Barrett or the woman he bought the home with because both travel for their jobs. The home went on the market in late August for $299,000.

Neighbors said FBI agents were at the home Friday night and were asking for a key to the home, but no one had one.