Marriott hotel rep is caught watching room stalker's nude video of Erin Andrews with friends 'who mocked her body', just hours after testifying against her in $75 million civil trial

  • Neal Peskind, a representative of West End Hotel Partners that owns Marriott Nashville, denied being the one who played Andrews' video
  • Claimed he told his dining companions to shut it down as soon as he saw the footage they were playing 
  • A Nashville waitress caught the trio watching the nude video and tweeted about it 
  • The server said Peskind and his friends said Andrews, 37, didn't deserve to collect damages because of her body  

By Snejana Farberov For Dailymail.com

Published: 08:35 EST, 3 March 2016 | Updated: 13:06 EST, 3 March 2016

A hotel representative who testified in Erin Andrews' stalking trial has been accused of watching the sportscaster's nude peephole video just hours later during a dinner with friends, who were allegedly overhead mocking her body.

Neal Peskind, who works for West End Hotel Partners, the owners of Marriott Nashville at Vanderbilt University, on Wednesday admitted that he was present when the footage was shown but denied being the one who played it.

He issued a statement saying that he was having dinner with a friend and his wife, and when the conversation turned to Erin Andrews' trial, his dining companions pulled up her X-rated video online and started watching it.

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Hotel representative Neal Peskind, who works for the owners of Marriott Nashville, has been accused of watching Erin Andrews' nude peephole video over dinner with friends
The incident took place Monday, after he testified in Andrews' civil trial

Hotel representative Neal Peskind (left), who works for the owners of Marriott Nashville, has been accused of watching Erin Andrews' nude peephole video over dinner with friends. The incident took place Monday, after he testified in Andrews' (right) civil trial 

Andrews, pictured in court on March 3, is suing her stalker and the owner and operator of the Marriott at Vanderbilt for $75million after a nude video was taken of her while at the hotel chain

Andrews, pictured in court on March 3, is suing her stalker and the owner and operator of the Marriott at Vanderbilt for $75million after a nude video was taken of her while at the hotel chain

Whistleblower: A server at Margot Cafe and Bar (pictured) in Nashville took to Twitter claiming that she saw Peskind watching the X-rated footage with a couple of friends, who mocked Andrews and her body 

Whistleblower: A server at Margot Cafe and Bar (pictured) in Nashville took to Twitter claiming that she saw Peskind watching the X-rated footage with a couple of friends, who mocked Andrews and her body 

Server speaks out: Waitress Nicole Branigan tweeted at several local media outlets detailing the scene involving Peskind and his dining companions 

Server speaks out: Waitress Nicole Branigan tweeted at several local media outlets detailing the scene involving Peskind and his dining companions 

'I asked them to stop, and while they did so, it was not as quickly as I had hoped,' Peskind stated. '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.

Branigan said she was shocked and horrified when she overhead Peskind and his friends allegedly laughing at Erin Andrews 

Branigan said she was shocked and horrified when she overhead Peskind and his friends allegedly laughing at Erin Andrews 

'I sincerely apologize for my participation in what happened.'

The allegations against Peskind first emerged on Tuesday when Nicole Branigan, a waitress at Margot Cafe and Bar in Nashville, tweeted out that she caught Peskind showing his friends the video at the center of Andrews' $75million lawsuit against Nashville Marriott and its partners, the station WSVN first reported. 

'He said it was costing him millions so he was going to show it to everyone. Then he & his guests proceeded to discuss her body & how she doesn't deserve money from the trial bc of her body,' the server wrote in a tweet.

'It was vulgar and shocking. We had to ask him to stop,' she added.

Ms Branigan has declined repeated requests for interviews from multiple media outlets that have reached out to her on social media.

On Wednesday, she tweeted: 'I saw something I thought was wrong. I said something bc I thought it was the right thing. I'm not planning on commenting further right now.'

Peskind testified in the civil trial on Monday, telling the court that his ownership group should not be held responsible for the actions of Erin Andrews' convicted stalker, Michael David Barrett, who was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison after he admitted to rigging hotel room peepholes to shoot nude videos of the sports journalist in two cities. 

Andrews' lawsuit names Barrett and both the owner and operator of the Nashville Marriott at Vanderbilt. The hotel is a franchise and was owned by West End Hotel Partners and managed by Windsor Capital Group when the video was shot at the hotel in September 2008.

The former ESPN sportscaster, who now works for Fox Sports, has maintained that the hotel honored a request by Barrett to be placed in a hotel room next to hers but never told her that he had made the request.

Victim testifies: An emotional Ms Andrews took the witness stand on Monday, tearfully telling the court that she will never get over the nude video 

Victim testifies: An emotional Ms Andrews took the witness stand on Monday, tearfully telling the court that she will never get over the nude video 

In his testimony Peskind noted that the hotel staff who gave out Andrews' room number to Barrett were hired by an independent contractor, and therefore, West End Hotel Partners should not be liable for the alleged privacy breach.

An emotional Ms Andrews took the witness stand on Monday, tearfully telling the court that she's been 'anxious, embarrassed, insecure, humiliated and depressed' since the video of her hit the Internet in July 2009.

'I will never get over this ... I felt like there was so much attention already and I felt like I walked into a room and I was already different,' Andrews said. 'I felt like everybody was looking at me like they had seen the video.'

 

 

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