Ex-NFL star charged in sexual assaults to get bail hearing

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Former NFL safety Darren Sharper huddles with attorney Blair Berk in Los Angeles Superior Court in February. (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

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Former Green Bay Packers’ cornerback Darren Sharper reacts after intercepting a pass and returning it 50 yards for a touchdown against the Detroit Lions in 1997. (Andy Manis / Associated Press )

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Minnesota Vikings Tarvaris Jackson, #7, and Darren Sharper, #42, celebrate their win over the New York Giants in 2008. (Elsa Garrison / Getty Images)

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Former New Orleans Saints safety Darren Sharper looks on during warm-ups before an NFL football game against the Miami Dolphins in Miami in 2009. (Lynne Sladky / Associated Press)

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Former NFL safety Darren Sharper looks toward his attorney Blair Berk during an appearance in Los Angeles Superior Court, where he pleaded not guilty to charges of drugging and raping two women. (Mario Anzuoni / Associated Press)

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Former NFL safety Darren Sharper sits in Los Angeles Superior Court. (Nick Ut / Associated Press)

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Former NFL safety Darren Sharper leaves a courthouse in Los Angeles. (Nick Ut / Associated Press)

By Richard Winton

April 10, 2014 1:51 PM PT

Former NFL player Darren Sharper is slated for a hearing next week in Phoenix to decide whether he can continue to be held in a Los Angeles County jail without bail on charges that he drugged and sexually assaulted two women in Tempe last year.

The Arizona charges are the latest against the Super Bowl-winning safety who has been charged with sexually assaulting four women and is under investigation in connection with another four assaults on women across several states.

Los Angeles prosecutors initially charged Sharper, 38, with two rape and five drug counts, alleging he drugged and attacked two women he met at a West Hollywood club in two separate incidents.

After first being released, he was taken into custody again in Los Angeles on Feb. 27 at the request of New Orleans police, who issued an arrest warrant for him in connection with two alleged rapes there.

Sharper has since been indicted by an Arizona grand jury on two counts of sexual assault and three counts of administering dangerous drugs in connection with attacks that allegedly occurred Nov. 20 in Tempe.

A Maricopa County judge has ordered a hearing for Wednesday in Phoenix to set bail on the Airzona charges.

Maricopa County prosecutors have appealed that decision because they argue that only a Los Angeles judge can decide whether to release Sharper on bail because he’s in an L.A. County jail.

Sharper’s lawyers, Blair Berk and Larry Levine, have argued that their client should be released on house arrest in Los Angeles. They say Arizona and L.A. prosecutors are using the new charges to hold the former athlete without bail. If he were to get to Arizona, they argue, he would likely get bail and be free. They allege that the new charges were filed after it became obvious that the New Orleans arrest warrant wouldn’t keep Sharper in an L.A. jail.

L.A. County prosecutors have acknowledged that even though they are holding him on an Arizona charge, they don’t intend to let him leave the state to appear in an Arizona court before they try him on the local charges.

Court documents filed in Los Angeles make allegations against Sharper similar to those from women in other states. Victims reported meeting the five-time Pro Bowl player, usually at a nightclub, then going back to his hotel room or home. Sharper allegedly offered the women shots of alcohol to drink.

Afterward, the women said, they immediately blacked out. Many of the women 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. He has been fired from his job with NFL Network.

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richard.winton@latimes.com