WKRN
Over the past week or so, I’ve been keeping a close eye on the Erin Andrews civil suit, which has the reporter/TV host suing the Nashville Marriott at Vanderbilt University, the hotel’s owner West End Hotel Partners, the management company Windsor Capital Group and her perpetrator/stalker Michael David Barrett for $75 million worth of damages from the peephole video from 2008.
Following tearful testimonies from both Andrews herself and her father, new reports accuse one of the defendants—BetaWest senior vice president Neal Peskind, who’s representing West End Hotel Partners—of actually playing the peephole video for friends at a restaurant Tuesday night.
Per WSMV, here’s the defense’s statement in response to the reports:
“Last night, Mr. Peskind (sic) and two of his friends, a husband and wife, were having dinner, and the friends brought the video up on their phone, to which he objected and immediately asked them to stop. The video was then turned off. We don’t make light of this situation. Ms. Andrews was the victim of a crime, which has been our position from the beginning and is the reason Mr. Peskind (sic) asked his friends to stop the video. Other comments attributed to Mr. Peskind (sic) surrounding this conversation never occurred.”
When asked about the incident on Wednesday, Peskind said that the claim was “incorrect.”
Following meetings with attorneys, Peskind issued his own statement, per WSMV:
“I was at a private dinner meeting with friends. They brought up the allegations and they started viewing the video. I asked them to stop, and while they did so, it was not as quickly as I had hoped. This incident has been blown into something it was not. I would never disrespect Ms. Andrews and what she has been through. This is a very unfortunate situation that should not be a reflection on West End Hotel Partners or to our commitment to the issues in this case surrounding what happened to her. I sincerely apologize for my participation in what happened.”
While Peskind denies any wrongdoing, a bartender at Margot Cafe and Bar had this to tell WSMV when asked about the incident:
“He said it was costing him millions so he was going to show it to everyone. His friends were making fun of her and her body,” the bartender wrote on Twitter.
“We had to ask him to stop. It was disgusting and horrifying,” she added.
Neal Peskind testified on Monday that his hotel group shouldn’t be liable for Andrews’ stalker being put in a room adjacent to the reporter, arguing that the hotel employees were hired by an independent contractor.