Arrest in Erin Andrews Nude Videos Case

Los Angeles (myFOXla.com) - A man accused of peeping on a female ESPN reporter, and videotaping her naked through a hotel room peephole, was told in Chicago today he will face trial in Los Angeles, and will be bought here next week.

The victim and her Los Angeles attorneys today praised the local U.S. Attorney and FBI offices for breaking the case. Erin Andrews' attorneys said in a statement "it is now clear that she was the victim of stalking and invasion of privacy at more than one location."

Suspect Michael David Barrett, 48, appeared before a federal magistrate in Chicago today and answered "yes sir" when questioned if he was the man named in a federal indictment for "interstate stalking," the Chicago Tribune Web site reported today. Another hearing will be held in Chicago Monday before he is to be taken by federal marshals to Los Angeles, the paper reported.

Barrett, a resident of the Chicago suburb of Westmont, was arrested Friday night at O'Hare International Airport. He is charged with using a modified peephole he installed on a Nashville hotel room's door to take video of the TV reporter as she was undressed in her room, alone.

The Tribune reported that Barrett is a travelling insurance salesman. His father and co-workers expressed shock when told Barrett had apparently used fake Internet identities to post videos of the unsuspecting woman online, and tried to sell them to the celebrity Web site TMZ.com.

Barrett was also accused of undertaking a similar peeping effort at a Milwaukee hotel, utilizing door-room peepholes that had been shortened to reverse their direction.

The charges were filed in Los Angeles, where Andrews' attorneys Marshall Grossman and Daniel Albertstone said she was "not a random victim. She was targeted and violated."

"Erin and her attorneys have been working closely with the United States Attorney, the FBI in Los Angeles and the private investigation firm of Kroll, Inc. since mid-July to investigate and reveal the full facts surrounding this matter," the attorneys said in a statement.

Andrews issued a statement today saying she is "deeply grateful to assistant United States Attorney Wes Hsu and (the FBI's) special agents for their dedicated service, and to ESPN for its support during this difficult time," Andrews said in a statement released in Los Angeles today. "I hope that today's action will help the countless others who have been similarly victimized.

"We made it clear in our original statement issued on July 17, that we were determined to press criminal charges against those responsible for the invasion of Erin's privacy when alone in her hotel room."

Andrews, 31, joined ESPN in May 2004 as a reporter the network's National Hockey League coverage. She has since moved on to cover college football and Major League Baseball.

Andrews said she will "make every effort to strengthen the laws on a state and federal level to better protect victims of criminal stalking. I am also grateful to those who have expressed their concerns and good wishes for my family and me."

On the Oprah show last month, she said discovery of herself, naked on the Internet, made her physically sick and that she thought her journalism career was over. "I kept screaming, `I'm done, my career is over," she recounted. She said she phoned her father and was so upset "they thought I was physically injured, how bad I was screaming."