Ex-NFL star Darren Sharper due for another L.A. court appearance
Former NFL star Darren Sharper is scheduled to appear in a Los Angeles courtroom Tuesday, his latest hearing in the ongoing legal saga involving sexual assault allegations in five states.
Sharper, 38, has spent more than six weeks in an L.A. jail as prosecutors and his attorneys debate whether he can be held without bail on sexual assault and drug charges out of Arizona.
[Updated at 9:55 a.m. PDT, April 15: Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Renee Korn continued the hearing to Thursday morning, citing the Wednesday matter in Arizona.
“Let’s find out what happens tomorrow,” she said Tuesday.]
Los Angeles County prosecutors were the first to file charges against the Super Bowl-winning safety, alleging he drugged and attacked two women he met at a West Hollywood club in two separate incidents.
He was initially released on bail but taken into custody again in late February after New Orleans police issued a warrant for his arrest, alleging he and an acquaintance assaulted two women there.
An Arizona grand jury later indicted him on two counts of sexual assault and three counts of administering dangerous drugs in connection with attacks in Tempe.
In all, the former safety is accused of drugging and assaulting eight women in L.A., Las Vegas, New Orleans and Tempe. Police in Miami Beach, Fla., are also investigating an alleged sexual battery there.
An Arizona judge ordered a hearing Wednesday in Phoenix to determine whether Sharper was eligible for bail on charges there. Sharper’s attorneys will appear on his behalf, said Jerry Cobb, a spokesman for the Maricopa County district attorney’s office.
Cobb confirmed his office had filed paperwork to the Arizona governor seeking Sharper’s extradition after the L.A. matter was resolved. He said it could take up to 60 days for the governor to review the request.
Sharper’s attorneys, Blair Berk and Leonard Levine, have argued their client should be released on monitored house arrest in Los Angeles. They say Arizona and L.A. prosecutors are using the new charges to hold Sharper without bail -- and if he were allowed to go to Arizona, he’d probably get bail and be free.
The lawyers also contend the new charges were filed after it became obvious the New Orleans arrest warrant would not keep Sharper in custody in Los Angeles.
Los Angeles County prosecutors have acknowledged their intent to try Sharper on their charges before allowing him to leave the state.
Court documents filed in L.A. outline allegations against Sharper similar to those from the alleged victims in other states. Women reported meeting the five-time Pro Bowl player, usually at a nightclub, then going back to his hotel room or an apartment.
Sharper allegedly then offered the women -- who were often in pairs or groups of three -- shots of alcohol.
After drinking the shots, the women said, they immediately blacked out. Many said they woke up with little or no memory of what happened but believed that they had been sexually assaulted.
Sharper played for the Green Bay Packers, Minnesota Vikings and New Orleans Saints. After the allegations surfaced, he was fired from his job with the NFL Network.
[For the Record, 11:03 a.m. PDT, April 15: A previous version of this post incorrectly identified attorney Leonard Levine as Larry Levine.]
Twitter: @katemather | Google+
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
