Darren Sharper pleads gulity to sexual assault

Former NFL star Darren Sharper pleaded no contest today (Monday March 23) to drugging and raping two women in Los Angeles in 2013 and 2014, as part of a broader plea deal in four states that will send him to federal prison for nine years.

Sharper, 39, acknowledged the crimes in Los Angeles Superior Court after pleading guilty by video link to sexual assault in Arizona.

Sharper wearing a striped, light blue suit, said he was entering the plea because it was in his best interest. He had faced up to 33 years in prison if convicted of all counts against him in California.

The women were not in court, but prosecutors said they had agreed to the plea deal.

In the Arizona case, Sharper admitted sexually assaulting one woman and trying to attack another in suburban Phoenix in 2013.

Sharper appeared in a Phoenix courtroom by video-conferencing from Los Angeles, where he has been jailed since last February.

Under the deal negotiated by his lawyers and state and federal prosecutors, Sharper will serve a nine-year federal prison term for similar crimes in Louisiana, Nevada, Arizona and California.

Similar hearings will follow in Las Vegas on Tuesday and in New Orleans in the next month. In each state, he's accused of drugging and sexually assaulting women when they were unconscious or otherwise unable to resist or consent.

He was sentenced immediately in the Arizona case, which is very unusual. Sentencing in California was scheduled July 15.

Sharper retired from the NFL in 2011 and all the alleged sexual assaults happened after Sharper's retirement as a player.

Sharper admitted sexually assaulting one victim and trying to assault another in Arizona, though police said he drugged three women and sexually assaulted two of them at a Tempe apartment in November 2013.

Sharper is expected to plead guilty to one felony charge of attempted sexual assault in Nevada, with the expectation that he will face up to eight years in prison, Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson told The Associated Press.

photo via AP Photo/Los Angeles Times/Bob Chamberlin