|
 Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Renee Korn ordered the
38-year-old former defensive back, who is under investigation for
sex crimes in several U.S. states, to remain held behind bars in Los
Angeles pending another hearing on Thursday.
Sharper, who played 14 years in the National Football League and
helped the New Orleans Saints to a 2010 Super Bowl title, is accused
of drugging four women in Los Angeles and raping two of them. He
faces similar accusations in Louisiana. Sharper has pleaded not
guilty in Los Angeles and his attorney has said prosecutors in
Louisiana do not have enough evidence against him.
In California, prosecutors say he met two women at a night club in
October and brought them to a Los Angeles hotel room, where he gave
both a drug-spiked drink and raped one, prosecutors said in court
papers. He is accused of doing the same to another pair of women in
California in January.
In Louisiana, New Orleans police asked to have him extradited there
on an arrest warrant over a similar accusation, and he was taken
into custody by Los Angeles police on February 27 in connection with
that warrant.
Sharper is accused of sexually assaulting two women in New Orleans
in September while they were impaired, according to papers from Los
Angeles prosecutors, citing an affidavit in the case. New Orleans
police have said he was joined by an acquaintance in committing the
crimes.
In declining on Friday to send Sharper to New Orleans, the judge
said that to have him sent there in line with a request from police
in that city, he would have to be either formally charged by
prosecutors there or have his extradition requested by the Louisiana
governor.
"The court is quite troubled by the fact that there isn't an
indictment or information filed," Korn said. "To hold him into
perpetuity on an arrest warrant seems to be grotesquely unfair."
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Sharper was ordered to return to court in Los Angeles for another
hearing on Thursday related to the extradition request, and the
judge said that before that time prosecutors in New Orleans might
file charges against him.
Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney Javan Wygal said his office has
not agreed to send Sharper back to New Orleans before the resolution
of the California case.
Los Angeles prosecutors have in court papers also cited sex crime
investigations against Sharper in Nevada and Arizona, which they
describe as also involving women who say they were given drinks that
caused them to pass out. Police in Miami Beach, Florida, have said
they too were investigating Sharper.
"The Los Angeles County District Attorney is working in close
concert with New Orleans law enforcement to unlawfully keep Mr.
Sharper in custody," said his attorney, Blair Berk.
A spokesman for the Orleans Parish District Attorney could not be
reached for comment.
Sharper was staying in California while working as an analyst for
NFL Network, but was terminated by the network after he was charged.
(Reporting by Brandon Lowrey, additional reporting by Steve Gorman
and Dana Feldman, writing by Alex Dobuzinskis; editing by Lisa
Shumaker; Cynthia Johnston and Lisa Shumaker)
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