How L.A. (and TMZ) is now involved in the EA peep-stalker case

The Associated Press

The FBI says they've arrested a Chicago-area man who is accused of taking surreptitious nude videos of ESPN reporter Erin Andrews in a hotel room.

The bureau says in a statement that 48-year-old Michael Barrett of Westmont, Ill., was arrested at Chicago's O'Hare Airport Friday night after charges were filled in Los Angeles. Barrett is scheduled to make an initial court appearance this morning in U.S. District Court in Chicago.

Seven of the eight videos posted online were taken through a modified door peephole while Andrews was alone and undressed in hotel rooms in Nashville, Tenn., in September 2008. Investigators believe the eighth video was taken in a hotel in Milwaukee in July 2008.

The FBI says Barrett faces federal charges of interstate stalking for taking the videos, posting the videos online and trying to sell them to the L.A.-based celebrity Web site TMZ.com. The charges are listed as interstate stalking to harass, intimidate and cause emotional distress to the victim, identified in the federal complaint as E.A.

A TMZ.com employee told Andrews' attorneys about the attempted sale, according to the
complaint. FBI agents matched information in the e-mail to Barrett.