Erin Andrews: 'Meltdown' After Stalker Sentenced

March 16, 2009— -- With her stalker headed to prison, ESPN reporter Erin Andrews admitted to caving in to her emotions after she left the sentencing hearing.

"I had a pretty big comedown, a meltdown last night, I think, after I got back from the courtroom," Andrews told "Good Morning America" today. "It's just been a lot."

Her nine-month fight to see Michael Barrett put behind bars ended Monday when the former insurance executive was sentenced to 30 months in prison.

"It's not over," Andrews said. "It's not going to be over, but this is the first step."

Andrews' lawyers confirmed today they have bought the copyright to the nude videos Barrett made over the course of several weeks filming her through hotel peepholes across the country, in hopes of lessening their availability on the Internet.

"Unfortunately, they will continue to be there forever, but hopefully in diminished numbers," attorney Marshall Grossman said.

Before Barrett, 49, was sentenced the told the court: "I hope she can forgive me."

Andrews said there's little chance of that -- and she's not buying his remorse.

"I think he feels bad he was caught," she said today.

"We shouldn't confuse him standing up there and saying he's sorry to the public humility and shame," Andrews' attorney Dan Alberstone said. "That's going to be his prison sentence, not just being behind bars, but the public humiliation and shame."

Andrews said that, in hopes of reaching both Barrett and the judge, she appealed to Barrett's professed love for his children, pointing out that she, too, is someone's child.

"I wanted him to know I'm a daughter to two parents and they are just mortified and they are so upset," she said. "I wanted him to know as a daughter what he did to me."

Andrews said she has gotten a number of letters from stalking victims, encouraging her. But she still has to explain to some she did nothing wrong.

"I think what is the hardest thing is I still have to say that to people," she said.

Barrett was ordered to surrender to authorities May 3. In addition to the prison time, he was sentenced to pay Andrews $7,366 in restitution.

Andrews is now turning her attention back to preparing for her stint on ABC's "Dancing With the Stars."

"I wanted to have a change of pace, make myself smile, do something different," she said. "It was time for that."

Erin Andrews: 'I'm At the Angry Stage'

Andrews said outside the courtroom after the sentencing that she believed the deal prosecutors offered was far too lenient and called on Congress to stiffen anti-stalking and video voyeurism laws.

"I'm at the angry stage right now," Andrews said. "I'm mad. Thirty months isn't enough. I think it's time for Congress, lawmakers to make a stiffer sentence for what it is. A lot of celebrities who have been stalked want to put it away. I can't. I'm in the angry stage."

In a sentencing memo filed last month, Andrews had said she wanted Barrett to pay about $335,000 in restitution. Andrews' lawyer said at the time she would not pursue a civil trial.

Ten videos of Andrews, 32, a sidelines reporter who joined in ESPN in 2004, hit the Internet in July 2009, setting off millions of online searches and prompting Andrews to take a hiatus from reporting.

The video prompted debates about whether news channels should air the footage and if Andrews, a statuesque blonde with rabid supporters, had encouraged her peeping tom by cultivating a "frat house" fan base.

"She doesn't deserve what happened to her, but part of the shtick, seems to me, is being a little bit out there in a way that then are you encouraging the complete nutcase to drill a hole in a room," USA Today sports columnist Christine Brennan said in July.

Brennan later tweeted that "women sports journalists need to be smart and not play to the frat house."

By September, Andrews had gone underground, hiding out in her mother's Atlanta home, where she called 911 one day when she found paparazzi trying to photograph her through the windows.

In October 2009, a months-long investigation came to a close when Barrett was arrested at O'Hare airport in Chicago. He was extradited to Los Angeles and charged with "the intent to harass, to place under surveillance with intent to harass and intimidate, and to cause substantial emotional distress to a person in another state," according to the criminal complaint.

Prosecutors say Barrett posted online videos of 16 other women, who are as-yet unidentified.

Barrett, an Illinois insurance executive, does not have a history of sexual offenses or serious crimes, other than charges of driving under the influence in 1988 and some speeding tickets.

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