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U.S. District Judge Manuel L. Real sentenced Michael David Barrett, 49, of Westmont, Illinois, in Los Angeles on March 15, 2010, to 30 months in federal prison for stalking ESPN reporter Erin Andrews after prosecutors said he secretly recorded her through a hotel-room peephole and posted clips online.

Barrett had pleaded guilty in Los Angeles on December 15, 2009, to a federal charge of interstate stalking with intent to harass and to cause substantial emotional distress. The U.S. attorney's office for the Central District of California said he admitted following Andrews for about 18 months and tracking her to at least three hotel rooms in three states in 2008.

Prosecutors said Barrett removed the peephole device from one of the doors and used his mobile phone to record her. He offered the footage for sale to the celebrity website TMZ in January 2009 and was refused, then posted 10 clips online and identified Andrews as the woman in them. Court filings said he had also posted 32 videos involving 16 other women who had not been identified.

Real ordered Barrett to pay Andrews $7,366 in restitution. Andrews told the court she was "being victimized every day" and had done nothing to deserve it. Real said at the hearing that Andrews would suffer for the rest of her life as a result of Barrett's conduct.

The case drew attention the week a video secretly recorded through the peephole of Andrews' hotel room door began spreading online. On July 22, 2009, Andrews called 911 from her house in a gated community in Dunwoody, Georgia, a suburb about 14 miles north of Atlanta, to report that two men she believed to be members of the media were parked outside and had knocked on her door.

Andrews identified herself to the DeKalb County operator, said she was "all over the news right now" and described herself as "the girl that was videotaped in my hotel room in the nude." She said, "I have been in the news recently about being in the hotel naked and I have paparazzi outside my window and I was told by law enforcement that if I did to call 911." On the tape, she added, "I did nothing wrong and I'm being treated like (expletive) Britney Spears and it sucks."

Andrews' attorney, Marshall Grossman, confirmed at the time that the footage showed her, said it was made without her knowledge, and said she intended to pursue criminal charges and civil claims against whoever recorded it and anyone who republished it. Dunwoody police Sgt. Mike Carlson said officers responded to the house but no incident report was filed, The Associated Press reported. DeKalb County released the audio the following week.