Darren Sharper Indicted on Rape, Drug Charges: Latest Details and Reaction

Mike ChiariDec 12, 2014

Longtime NFL safety Darren Sharper was one of three men indicted on rape charges in New Orleans on Friday, Dec. 12. Held without bail in Los Angeles County, he was the subject of an extradition order to New Orleans to face federal drug charges in January.

On March 20, The Associated Press reported Sharper was charged with rape in Las Vegas. That same day, The New Orleans Advocate reported Sharper struck plea deals to resolve all of his open drug and rape cases in four different states.

Continue for updates.

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Terms of Sharper's Probation Revealed

Saturday, April 11

John Simerman and Ramon Antonio Vargas of The Advocate detailed the terms of Sharper's probation, once he is released from prison:

"
During his first three to five years of freedom, California officials will track him by GPS.
He’ll undergo sex offender treatment for years.
He can’t drink alcohol for the rest of his life or go to bars or liquor stores. He can’t visit sex shops or chat on the Internet to get a date.
If he wants to spend the night away from home or travel more than 50 miles, state officials must approve it.
Sharper will be subject to lie detector tests and, while on lifetime probation in Arizona, to the “penile plethysmograph,” in which a sensor is attached to the penis while an array of sexual images flashes before his eyes, to gauge arousal.
"

Sharper Strikes Plea Deals in All Open Drug, Rape Cases

Friday, March 20

Ramon Antonio Vargas, John Simerman and Gordon Russell of The New Orleans Advocate reported that Sharper "has struck a global plea deal that is expected to resolve pending charges of raping and drugging women against him in four different states, as well as federal court in New Orleans."

The report added the following details:

"Terms of the plea agreement were not announced Friday, but the fact that a deal had been struck was announced in open court in Los Angeles Friday. Orleans Parish District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro issued a statement Friday afternoon confirming that the deal will resolve all of the open cases against the former Saints safety.

Cannizzaro said he expects Sharper to be in Louisiana within 30 days to plead to the charges he faces here, which include state and federal cases. Sharper also has charges pending in Las Vegas and Arizona, as well as Los Angeles.

Authorities in Los Angeles said there would be no comment from any parties in the case there until Monday, when the pleas are expected to be officially filed."

Sharper Charged with Rape in Las Vegas

Friday, March 20

"Rape charges have been filed in Las Vegas against former NFL safety Darren Sharper, who already faces sexual assault charges in Los Angeles, New Orleans and the Phoenix area," Ken Ritter of The Associated Press reported.

Ritter provided further details:

"
Sharper's Las Vegas attorney, David Chesnoff, appeared Friday before a Las Vegas judge on two sexual assault charges involving two women in January 2014. Details of the allegations weren't immediately available.
Chesnoff says Justice of the Peace Janiece Marshall set a court hearing for April 3.
The 39-year-old Sharper is jailed in Los Angeles, where he's scheduled for a preliminary hearing Friday after pleading not guilty to drugging and raping two women in 2013.
"

Sharper Hearings Delayed

Thursday, Feb. 12

Andy Grimm of The Times-Picayune (New Orleans) reported that Sharper's trials in Los Angeles and New Orleans have been delayed:

"
Hearings in rape cases against former Saints star Darren Sharper have been delayed in both federal court in New Orleans and Los Angeles County criminal court, according to prosecutors in California and federal court records.
Sharper's preliminary hearing on rape charges in Los Angeles was moved from Tuesday to March 17, a Los Angeles County District Attorney's spokeswoman said in a statement. Sharper's lawyer in Los Angeles, Blair Berk, declined comment on the change.
"

Defendant Brandon Licciardi Names Reggie Bush in Allegation

Friday, Feb. 6

John Simerman and Ramon Antonio Vargas of The New Orleans Advocate reported that an allegation has been leveled against former Saints running back Reggie Bush:

"
"A former St. Bernard Parish sheriff's deputy who has been charged with helping former Saints safety Darren Sharper drug women to prime them for rape told investigators that a few years earlier he saw former Saints running back Reggie Bush drop ecstasy into Champagne glasses and hand out the illicit party drug to women on a nearby dance floor at a Las Vegas club.
Licciardi recalled running into Bush in the VIP area of a dance venue in Las Vegas. Bush recognized Licciardi as a friend of Sharper, he said.
"OK, um, I was in Vegas about three years ago and um, Reggie Bush put Molly in Champagne. He was handing out Molly on the dance floor to girls. Handing it out. Like giving it to them," Licciardi said.
"And how do you know that?" asked James O'Hern, an investigator for the D.A.'s Office.
"Cause I saw it with my own eyes," Licciardi responded.
"

Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press provided a statement from Bush's attorney:

Sharper's Preliminary Hearing for Rape Charges Set for February 17

Tuesday, Jan. 27

The Associated Press, (via PackersNews.com) reports Sharper's preliminary hearing for rape charges against him is set for next month:

"
A preliminary hearing for former Green Bay Packers safety Darren Sharper on charges that he drugged and raped two women he met at a West Hollywood nightclub has been tentatively set for Feb. 17.
A Los Angeles Superior Court judge set the new hearing date on Tuesday after meeting privately with prosecutors and defense lawyers.
Sharper said he agrees with the delay.
Judge Michael Pastor said the hearing was postponed because of scheduling and evidence issues that he didn't explain.
"

Sharper Faces Extradition on Drug Charges

Tuesday, Jan. 13

According to a report from WWLTV.com, Sharper is the subject of a federal extradition order:

"
Former Saints safety Darren Sharper has been ordered to be brought to New Orleans to face federal drug charges against him, putting that case ahead of the related rape charges he faces in three separate state jurisdictions.
In paperwork filed Monday, Magistrate Judge Michael North ordered that Sharper be brought to New Orleans by Feb. 23 to face his arraignment on three counts in which Sharper is accused of drugging women with an Ambien-like drug in order to knock them out and sexually assault them.
The extradition will put the federal case ahead of the separate state rape charges he faces in New Orleans, Tempe, Arizona and Los Angeles. Sharper will be transferred by U.S. Marshals from Los Angeles County Jail, where he has been held without bond since March 2014.
The formal extradition demand – a writ of habeas corpus – comes in the form of an order from the president of the United States and cannot be challenged.
"

Details Come Out on Sharper Situation

Friday, Dec. 19

Andy Grimm of NOLA.com has the latest details on Sharper and St. Bernard Parish Deputy Brandon Licciardi:

"
Licciardi told investigators he went to a convention in Las Vegas attended by NFL players, and a player warned Licciardi that drinks had been spiked with drugs, FBI Special Agent Robert Blythe testified. Questioned by Licciardi's lawyer, Ralph Capitelli, Blythe declined to name the player Licciardi mentioned, or other NFL players at the convention.
Blythe said he might not recall the name correctly. "It's possible I could mess it up. There are a couple (names)," Blythe said.
"There could be investigations going forward. There's not currently," Bythe said. "If given time, I intend to look into those allegations."
Licciardi was concerned that investigators might find incriminating text messages on his phone, Blythe testified, including a message in which Sharper allegedly referred to drugging a victim.

"She's on the potion. She's ready," Sharper wrote in a text, Blythe said.
"

Sharper Indicted on Rape Charges

Friday, Dec. 12

Ken Daley of NOLA.com was among the first to report the news:

According to Natasha Robin of Fox 8 New Orleans, the charges stem from two separate 2013 incidents involving three women total. Sharper was indicted on a simple rape charge from Aug. 31, as well as two aggravated rape charges from Sept. 23, when both him and alleged accomplice Erik Nunez were accused of raping two women in Sharper's New Orleans apartment.

As Mike Perlstein and WWLTV.com staff (via USA Today) note, these are not the only sexual assault charges Sharper is facing:

"
Sharper, who remains in a Los Angeles jail, is under investigation for a total of eight alleged rapes and 11 druggings in four states: Louisiana, Nevada, Arizona and California. He is being held without bond in Los Angeles County jail as he awaits trial on two rape charges there. He also has been formally charged in two rapes in Tempe, Arizona.
"

Alleged accomplices Nunez and St. Bernard Parish Deputy Brandon Licciardi were also indicted, per Perlstein:

WDSU's Travers Mackal also notes that Sharper and Licciardi are facing drug charges:

"
In a six-count indictment, federal prosecutors said Sharper and Licciardi, a St. Bernard Parish Sheriff's Office deputy at the time of the incident, did "knowingly and intentionally combine, conspire, confederate and agree with each other and others, both known and unknown to the grand jury, to distribute Alprazolam, Diazepam and Zolphidem, schedule IV controlled substances, with the intent to commit a crime of violence, that is, rape..."
"

Licciardi's involvement isn't fully understood at this point, though Perlstein and staff note that "investigators had looked into telephone text messages and images Sharper and Liccardi (sic) exchanged around the time a woman accused Sharper of rape."

Perlstein points out that Sharper could face life in prison if found guilty:

Per Daley of NOLA.com, "Orleans Parish Criminal District Court Judge Karen Herman set bond for Sharper and Nunez at $2.5 million. Licciardi's bond was set at $2.9 million."

The 39-year-old Sharper was a five-time Pro Bowler and six-time All-Pro in 14 seasons with the Green Bay Packers, Minnesota Vikings and New Orleans Saints. He won a Super Bowl with the Saints in 2010 and retired following the next regular season.

With 63 career interceptions, Sharper is widely regarded as one of the best NFL safeties since his rookie season of 1997. With such serious charges against him, however, his impressive NFL career may now be moot.

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