FBI serves search warrants in Erin Andrews case
The FBI served search warrants at the Silicon Valley offices of Yahoo Inc. and Google Inc., seeking explicit videos and electronic records involving the Illinois man accused of illegally recording ESPN reporter Erin Andrews through hotel peepholes.
Michael David Barrett, 48, of Westmont, Ill., who is accused of trying to sell nude videos of Andrews, pleaded not guilty last month in federal court in Los Angeles to a charge of interstate stalking.
The warrants were served in Northern California on Wednesday. In an affidavit for the warrant, an FBI agent indicated that investigators are seeking electronic records connected with a 42-second video posted in June to Flickr.com entitled “Hot Blonde Out of Shower.”
The agent stated the video of a nude woman appears to have been taken through a hotel room peephole and associated with a Flickr.com username. Flickr is owned by Yahoo. The associated Yahoo account is linked to Barrett, the warrant said.
The FBI also is seeking electronic records of e-mails associated with Barrett from Google, according to a second search warrant. There is no indication whether the information has so far been provided.
Barrett is accused of shooting videos of Andrews through peepholes of hotel rooms in three different states and trying to post those videos on the Internet after trying to sell them to TMZ.com, according to court records.
Barrett’s trial is scheduled for Jan. 12. He is free on $100,000 bail. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of five years in federal prison.
He was arrested Oct. 2 at Chicago O’Hare International Airport.
