By: Molly Gray (TheLantern.com) -

ESPN reporter Erin Andrews filed a lawsuit Thursday against Ohio State doing business as the Blackwell Inn for negligence, emotional distress and invasion of privacy as part of a larger suit against two additional hotels and the man that published nude footage of the television reporter last year.

“The university disagrees with Ms. Andrews’ claims and we will defend the claims through the court process,” said Jim Lynch, director of Media Relations for OSU, in an e-mail.

Andrews is seeking $1.2 million for the emotional stress and lack of earning capacity caused by a video of Andrews nude in her hotel room that raced across the web in February 2008.

After the footage was released, ESPN’s lead counsel pursued the case until Michael David Barrett plead guilty in a court in Los Angeles to interstate stalking last December.

Although he has not received a copy of the claim as of Sunday morning, Barrett’s attorney Richard Beuke said he and his client were not surprised by the lawsuit.

Barrett admitted to following Andrews to three cities and altering the peepholes in two hotels — the Blackwell and a Marriott hotel in Nashville, Tenn. — in order to tape Andrews. In March, he was sentenced to two and a half years in prison for stalking.

According to the lawsuit, which was filed in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Ill., Barrett called the Blackwell in January 2008 to find out where Andrews would be staying during her trip to OSU on Feb. 4.

After being told by Blackwell officials that Andrews would be staying there, Barrett requested a room next to hers, which was “accommodated without the knowledge or consent of [Andrews],” according to the suit.

To support her case, Andrews and her attorneys will have to prove a breach of her privacy.

“Against the hotels, basically, she is going to have to show that they had a duty to her that was breached,” said Christopher Robinette, associate professor at the Widener University School of Law in Pennsylvania. “And if [the facts in the lawsuit] are true, that’s likely.”

The lawsuit goes on to detail how Barrett altered the peephole device in Andrews’ door and surreptitiously filmed her through the peephole while she changed her clothing. The video was then sent to e-mail accounts controlled by Barrett and distributed through the Internet, the suit……

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