AP Photo/Mark HumphreyUPDATE: The closing statements in Erin Andrews' civil trial against the Marriott Nashville hotel for the peeping tom incident occurred on Friday. The sportscaster's legal team argued negligence by the hotel, and stated that Andrews "is living a nightmare." The trial will go to the jury with deliberations set for Monday at 9 a.m.
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Erin Andrews' behavior appeared different off-camera after her 2008 peeping tom incident, yet she remained "incredible" on TV, her former ESPN colleague Jesse Palmer says in a court deposition.
He made his comments in 2014, two years after she left the cable network to work for rival Fox Sports. His deposition was played for a jury in a Nashville court Thursday during Andrews' civil trial against the Marriott Nashville hotel, where the incident took place. Also that day, a judge denied a motion by the defense to dismiss the case, according to Fox 17 Nashville reporter Eric Alvarez.
In 2008, a video of her appearing nude while changing clothes in a hotel room was posted online after Michael David Barrett filmed it through a peephole in an adjacent room. He pleaded guilty in 2009 to stalking Andrews and shooting the video and was sentenced to 30 months in prison. Andrews is now suing the hotel for $75 million.
In his deposition, posted by Fox 17, Palmer said that as Andrews was preparing to go back to work as a sideline reporter at ESPN after the video was posted, at the start of the 2009 football season, he wondered "what her mental state" was like after the incident.
"I remember thinking she did really well," he said about her first broadcast and also said she was among the best, if not the best ESPN sideline reporter that season.
"On-air, I thought she was incredible," he added.
But off-camera, Andrews' behavior seemed different to Palmer.
He said prior to the incident, she appeared to be happy and "very, very outgoing" and had "great energy" and that after the video was released, during production meetings, she appeared "a little bit more quiet."
"I think she was a little bit more reserved than maybe she normally was during those meetings," he said.
"I know Erin is, she can be an emotional person and she was also an emotional person, I think, before the incident," he said, added, "I was certainly, in the aftermath, careful around her."
Palmer said Andrews had told him and other ESPN colleagues after the peeping tom incident that she felt unsafe staying alone in a hotel room. Andrews had recently given a tearful testimony at the trial and said she now takes extra precautions after arriving in her hotel rooms. Palmer also said he saw more security near her when she was on the job.
Andrews among the most popular sports TV personalities and also co-hosts Dancing With the Stars. She had competed on the show in 2010. Palmer, a former NFL player who works as an ESPN college football analyst, had himself appeared on another reality show, The Bachelor, in 2004.
In his deposition, he talked about how Andrews was perceived by the public and by her colleagues during her time at ESPN. He said she was "very well respected," also adding that "a lot of men" generally found her "very attractive" and that she had fans because of her professionalism and also because of her "physical beauty."
"I think she's very confident in how she looks," he said. "I've been around her, certainly, when she's dressed, I don't know if 'provocative' is the word but it's definitely been, she's not wearing like a cloak."
He also said he had witnessed some ESPN co-workers speaking negatively about Andrews, calling her a "diva" and saying she "doesn't like other women." He said he did not agree with these sentiments and that his experience working with her was good.
Originally published on March 3, 2016 at 2:13 p.m.