Former NFL safety Darren Sharper gets 20 years in drug-rape case
LOS ANGELES, Calif. (FOX 11 / CNS) - Former pro football safety Darren Sharper was sentenced Tuesday to 20 years in prison for drugging and raping two women he met in a West Hollywood nightclub, completing the legal downfall of the one-time Super Bowl champion and NFL Network analyst.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael E. Pastor ordered Sharper to register as a sex offender for life. Sharper, 41, was given credit for 2,017 days already served. His sentence will run concurrently with a roughly 18-year prison term he is already serving for similar crimes in Louisiana.
Sharper pleaded no contest in March 2015 to two counts of rape by the use of a drug and four counts of furnishing a controlled substance in the Los Angeles case. Under the terms of the plea deal, a count of possession of morphine and allegations related to the rape counts were dismissed.
He also struck similar plea agreements with prosecutors in Arizona and Nevada on the same day. He later struck the plea deal in Louisiana.
When the deals were struck, Los Angeles prosecutors said that with time-served and good-time credits, Sharper would likely serve about nine years in behind bars. It was unclear, however, how much time he will wind up serving in Louisiana, where a federal judge sentenced him to the 18-year term.
The charges in Los Angeles stemmed from two separate assaults. On Oct. 30, 2013, Sharper met two women at a West Hollywood nightclub and invited them to a party. Stopping by his hotel room first, he gave each women a drink doctored with the sedative zolpidem. One of the women woke up naked hours later while Sharper was sexually assaulting her, according to details provided by the District Attorney's Office. The other woman awoke and "interrupted his actions," prosecutors said.
On Jan. 14, 2014, Sharper met another pair of women at the same nightclub and followed the same pattern, inviting them to a party and first offering them shots at his hotel room. When the women woke up hours later, one
believed she had been sexually assaulted, according to the District Attorney's Office.
A member of the league's 2000s All-Decade Team and a five-time Pro Bowl selection, Sharper was suspended from his job as an analyst with the NFL Network following his initial arrest.
Sharper played for the Green Bay Packers in 1997-2004, the Minnesota Vikings in 2005-2008 and the New Orleans Saints in 2009-2010.
He was on the Saints team that won Super Bowl XLIV in February 2010.
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