Neighbors: Accused Andrews stalker kept to himself

WESTMONT, Ill. — The man accused of stalking ESPN reporter Erin Andrews kept his yard manicured, played golf and enjoyed cooking on a gas grill on a patio behind his $300,000 suburban Chicago town house.

It’s the apparently normal life of Michael David Barrett, a 47-year-old insurance company employee, that made his arrest for allegedly secretly videotaping Andrews nude so upsetting, his neighbors said Sunday.

“I’m totally shocked,” said David Wayne, 72, a retired corporate executive who lives several doors down from Barrett. “He looked absolutely normal — nothing distinguishing.”

Barrett was being held in jail over the weekend after his arrest Friday at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago. Investigators believe he recorded Andrews by aiming a cell phone camera through an altered peephole in the door of her hotel room.

Andrews, 31, worked the Auburn-Tennessee game for ESPN on Saturday night in Knoxville, Tenn. Before kickoff, she posed for photos with Tennessee donors who get to stand on the sideline.

She issued a statement after the arrest thanking FBI agents and federal prosecutors for their work and said she hoped the case will eventually help others.

In Westmont, a leafy, middle-class suburb about 20 miles west of Chicago lined with quaint, gas-lamp replica street lights, there did not appear to be anyone home Sunday at Barrett’s two-story, two-garage house.

The housing development is favored by doctors, executives and retirees, many of whom don’t have children, so people don’t tend to get to know each other well as in other communities, said Dolores Shea, 79, head of the neighborhood association.

Barrett kept to himself, too, Shea said, and no one interviewed on his street Sunday could provide any details about his character or personal life. Shea said Barrett drove an expensive car, and she would often see him throwing golf clubs in his trunk.

Barrett appeared to live with a woman, said Shea, but she didn’t know the woman’s relationship to Barrett.

Shea said a “For Sale” sign was put up in Barrett’s front lawn about two weeks ago. A real estate Web site set the price for the house at $299,000, and described the home as having three bedrooms, two baths and two fireplaces.

An FBI affidavit said Barrett specifically asked for a room next to Andrews at a Tennessee hotel where seven videos were likely taken, apparently through an altered peephole. An eighth video may have been shot at a Milwaukee hotel.

Marriott International Inc. and Ramada Worldwide, which operate the hotels where the videos may have been shot, have issued statements saying they are concerned about their guests privacy and safety, are looking into the matter and are cooperating with authorities.

Barrett is accused of trying to sell videos of Andrews to celebrity Web site TMZ.com and posting them online.

A federal magistrate judge is expected to decide Monday whether Barrett should be returned to California as a prisoner or be freed on bail. He faces charges in Los Angeles, where TMZ is based, of interstate stalking. He faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted.

His lawyer, Rick Beuke, said he did not believe Barrett had so much as a traffic ticket on his record.

“He’s as regular a guy as you’ll ever meet — a great friend,” said Beuke, who has known him for a decade. “I must have calls from 30 people wanting to know what they could do to help.”

Beuke said Barrett has been divorced for some time and has children. The Combined Insurance Company of America confirmed that he was an employee who worked in sales management.

Several TV networks and newspapers had aired clips or printed screen grabs from the videos of Andrews in July. She has covered hockey, college football, college basketball and Major League Baseball for ESPN since 2004 and was named “sexiest sportscaster” by Playboy magazine in 2008 and 2009.