 Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Calif.), ESPN's Erin Andrews, and Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C)
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Erin Andrews addresses reporters
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Erin Andrews poses with interns and staff
| ESPN broadcaster Erin Andrews visited Capitol Hill Tuesday to help unveil the Senate version of a bill that would strengthen anti-stalking laws.
Andrews unwillingly became an Internet sensation in 2009 when a stalker posted nude videos of her obtained through a hotel door’s keyhole. Earlier this year the stalker was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison, a punishment Andrews feels is too lenient for his crime.
Andrews choked up as she told a room full of reporters about her year-long ordeal. "You never really feel safe again," she said, "and I'm just one of so many women this happens to."
Andrews was joined at the press conference by the bill's sponsors, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Reps. Loretta Sanchez (D-Calif.), Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), Scott Murphy (D-N.Y.), and Leonard Boswell (D-Iowa).
Foxx cited the statistic that 1 in every 12 American women will be the victims of stalking at some point in their lives, and the members all agreed that laws must be updated to keep pace with the internet age.
"When I was starting out in television we weren't really taught anything about privacy," said Andrews, "but now it's something I talk about with my colleagues."
Andrews participated this Spring in ABC's "Dancing with the Stars," but she said the first time she was asked to do the show she turned it down.
"It was right after the [stalker case] had blown up publicly, and I was at Mississippi State University when I got the call about it.
"Everyone thought I would do [the show], and ride this 15 minutes of fame, but I didn't want to then. I wasn't myself and I was tying to behave like I was fine, but I wasn't.
"When I finally did it this spring, I was thrilled at the new demographic I was introduced to. Women didn't know me [from ESPN], and hopefully they could see me as the human face of stalking."
The bill is called the “Simplifying the Ambiguous Law, Keeping Everyone Reliably Safe (Stalkers) Act."
— Report by Christina Wilkie and photographs by Greg Nash
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