Sharper to begin changing pleas in rape cases

Former NFL All-Pro Darren Sharper was expected to appear in one court in person Monday and another via video after reaching plea agreements with prosecutors involving rape charges against the former safety who is accused of drugging and sexually assaulting women in four states.
A change-of-plea hearing was scheduled for Sharper on Monday morning in a court in Los Angeles. He’s then scheduled to enter a new plea via video conferencing in Phoenix. Those cases combined with others in Nevada and Louisiana are likely to lead to a long prison sentence.
In each state he’s accused of drugging and sexually assaulting women when they were unconscious or otherwise unable to resist or consent.
Similar hearings will follow in Las Vegas this week and in New Orleans in the next month.
Sharper’s attorney on Friday announced that Sharper has reached plea agreements with prosecutors in all of the cases against him.
The 39-year-old retired from the NFL in 2011 after winning a Super Bowl with the New Orleans Saints. He had a 14-year career with three teams and later worked as an analyst for the NFL network.
The alleged sexual assaults all happened since Sharper’s retirement as a player.
It was not clear what he would plead to in Monday’s hearings. Sharper has been jailed in Los Angeles since February 2014 after pleading not guilty to drugging and raping two women there in 2013.
Only prosecutors in Nevada, where Sharper is scheduled to change his plea Tuesday, provided details of their part of the deal. There, he is expected to plead guilty to one felony charge of attempted sexual assault, with the expectation that he’ll face between 38 months and eight years in prison, Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson told The Associated Press.