Corporate Villain Hit Where It Hurts
By 
Kudos to this jury:
The jury in Erin Andrews’s civil suit against the Nashville Marriott reached a verdict today. Andrews claimed that the hotel disclosed her room number to her stalker and allowed him to stay in the room next to hers—from which he was able to use a peephole to record her undressing—and asked for $75 million in damages. Today, the jury came back with a verdict awarding her $55 million.
Maybe I’m missing something, but given this set of facts — giving her stalker an adjoining room! — I don’t understand why they didn’t settle. I’m glad they paid for it anyway.
If you haven’t been following this story, it’s really horrible even beyond the obviously horrible behavior of the hotels who enabled the stalker who put a nude video of Andrews online. Her employer at the time and the media didn’t exactly cover themselves with glory, either. And her testimony about the ongoing effects on her life makes me both sad and infuriated again:
Andrews appeared to break out in a rash on her neck while testifying, something she said has occurred ever since the video was posted whenever she’s stressed.
She said she tried to immerse herself in work, hoping that if she covered three football games a week and competed on “Dancing With the Stars” people would forget about the video, and she could too.
But she testified that eventually she was unable to bury herself in work and sought help because she still felt “screwed up.”
Andrews told the court that it will be difficult to discuss the video with her future children and talked about her current relationship with boyfriend Jarret Stoll.
“I feel sad because I think he would have loved the girl more who was there before this happened,” Andrews said through tears. “And I feel guilty about that.”
Particularly given how this was only possible with the active enabling of the hotel, they’re getting off easy.