The NFL network fires Darren Sharper, 38, days after he surrendered to Los Angeles police for aggravated rape charges and drugging multiple women in multiple states, a spokesman confirmed to the New York Daily News.
The former New Orleans Saint worked as an analyst for the network after his football career ended. The league had previously suspended Sharper indefinitely without pay on January 18 following an arrest for drug possession. Now 24 hours after he was detained in an L.A. jail, after an arrest warrant was issued in New Orleans, the NFL network has terminated its contract with Sharper.
Sharper pleaded not guilty last Thursday to charges by Los Angeles prosecutors that he “drugged two women with spiked drinks and raped one of them in a hotel room in October, then drugged two more women and raped one of them at the same hotel in January.” He posted a $200,000 bond while awaiting trial for those charges, but turned himself in to authorities after a an arrest warrant was issued in New Orleans in connection with sex crimes there.
New Orleans authorities stated before that Sharper was under investigation for one rape charge but new information received indicates Sharper and accomplice Eric Nunez raped two women at his apartment on the same night.
The Orleans Parish District Attorney also issued a warrant for 26-year-old Nunez. The district attorney’s office arrested Nunez in connection with the rapes that occurred the night of September 23, 2013 in New Orleans. No additional details were released about the charges.
If convicted, Sharper could face life in prison for the New Orleans charges. The same day he posted bail in Los Angeles, a woman filed a sexual battery complaint against him in Miami. At this time, Sharper has been accused in five states of raping nine women and drugging 11.