Ex-NFL star Darren Sharper to remain jailed without bail, judge says

A Los Angeles judge Monday again ordered ex-NFL star Darren Sharper to remain in jail without bail amid ongoing sexual assault investigations in five states.

Los Angeles prosecutors have 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 Feb. 27 when New Orleans police 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.

L.A. County prosecutors plan to try Sharper before any trial proceedings begin in Arizona.

Monday’s hearing was to determine whether Sharper would stay in a Los Angeles jail pending possible extradition efforts by Arizona authorities. Sharper’s attorneys, Blair Berk and Leonard Levine, argued their client should be released on house arrest, saying Arizona prosecutors have said they will not seek his extradition.

Los Angeles prosecutors disagreed, citing a Monday email from an attorney with the Maricopa County attorney’s office, who said officials were “in the process of getting a governor’s warrant to extradite Sharper.”

The attorney said her office was “proceeding at breakneck speed on this issue” and expected to file the necessary paperwork for Sharper’s extradition with the Arizona governor’s office by Wednesday.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Renee Korn ordered Sharper to remain in Los Angeles County Jail until it was clear whether Arizona would seek his extradition. His next court hearing is scheduled for April 15.

After the hearing, a spokesman for the Maricopa County attorney’s office clarified prosecutors there were seeking Sharper’s extradition -- but would not ask that he be brought to Arizona until after the L.A. case was resolved.

“What we have communicated to prosecutors in L.A. is we are seeking to have a governor’s warrant served on the defendant, but we do not intend to seek extradition until he is completed with the charges he faces in L.A.,” spokesman Jerry Cobb said.

In all, Sharper is accused of drugging and sexually assaulting at least eight women in Los Angeles, New Orleans, Las Vegas and Tempe, Ariz. A ninth woman has accused him of sexual battery in Florida.

Court documents filed in Los Angeles describe a pattern in the allegations. 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 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 felt that they had been sexually assaulted.

New Orleans police issued an arrest warrant for Sharper and his friend, Erik Nunez, 26, after two women alleged the men had sex with them without their consent while they “were under the influence of an unknown substance” on Sept. 23.

Sharper played for the Green Bay Packers, Minnesota Vikings and New Orleans Saints. He has been fired from his job with the NFL Network.

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kate.mather@latimes.com