Former American football star Darren Sharper has been sentenced to 20 years in prison after admitting to drugging and raping two women in California.

The 41-year-old pleaded no contest to charges in California of rape by use of drugs and furnishing a controlled substance, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office said in a statement.

District Attorney spokeswoman Jane Robinson said this was the last sentencing the former Super Bowl winner faced for crimes committed in various different states.

The sentence will run concurrently with a previous 18-year sentence handed down in a federal court in Louisiana on similar charges, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the eastern district of Louisiana.

In the California case, Sharper admitted to meeting two women at a West Hollywood nightclub in October 2013 and later inviting them to his hotel room. He gave both of the women a drink, which made them both pass out, prosecutors said.

One woman woke up naked hours later with Sharper sexually assaulting her and the second woman woke up and stopped the attack, prosecutors said.

Months later, in January 2014, Sharper met two separate women and followed the same procedure, prosecutors said.

The two women woke up hours later and one woman believed she had been sexually assaulted. Both left the hotel and sought medical treatment, prosecutors said.

Sharper, a five-time Pro Bowl safety who retired from the NFL in 2011 after helping lead the New Orleans Saints to a Super Bowl championship, had pleaded guilty in federal court in Louisiana in May 2015 to distributing controlled substances to three unsuspecting women and then sexually assaulting them while they were incapacitated.

He has also pleaded guilty or no contest to rape or attempted rape charges involving several women in Arizona and Nevada.

Sharper's 14-year career in the NFL included stints with the Green Bay Packers and the Minnesota Vikings. He was working as an NFL Network analyst when women began to allege they had blacked out while drinking with him and woke up to find they had been raped.

His 20 year sentence will be served in federal prison at a location to be determined by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in eastern Louisiana.

The sentences will run concurrently as part of a negotiated plea deal. </s> LOS ANGELES | Former NFL star Darren Sharper was sentenced Tuesday a 20-year prison term, ending a tour of shame and punishment in the courthouse where he first admitted drugging and raping women in four states.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor denounced Sharper’s “horrible conduct” and “disgraceful abuse of trust” during the hearing that concluded prosecutions that unmasked the popular former all-pro safety and Super Bowl champ as a serial rapist.

Under the terms of a plea deal negotiated with prosecutors in four states, Sharper will be eligible for parole in about eight years because California law requires he serve half his sentence and he has already been behind bars more than two years since his arrest.

But he will probably serve more time if an appeals court upholds an 18-year prison sentence handed down by a New Orleans federal judge who rejected the deal as too lenient. Sharper has appealed that harsher sentence.

Sharper, 41, sat quietly in court in orange jail scrubs and never addressed the court or two emotional victims who spoke about evenings that began innocently enough partying with friends turned into nightmares they can no longer escape after he secretly slipped drugs in their shot glasses and insisted they drink.

Both women blacked out and later awoke to the groggy reality that something terribly wrong had occurred that they couldn’t immediately comprehend in their drug-induced stupor.

“I started vomiting, my head was pounding and I had trouble seeing clearly,” said one victim, who said her rape on Jan. 15, 2014 was “the worst night of my life.”

The woman, identified only as Jane Doe 2, teared up before she even addressed the court and dabbed at her nose with a tissue throughout. She said her surfing career spiraled downward afterward, she lost her self-confidence, lives in fear and at one point considered suicide.

“The only good thing about this situation is that this disgusting low-life human will be sent to prison for many years and is likely he will never be able to do to this to another woman again,” she said. “I hope this scumbag will now feel as worthless as he has made me feel.”

Sharper, 41, was working as an NFL network analyst when women in several cities began reporting how nights of partying with their girlfriends and Sharper ended with them waking up in his hotel room confused and discovering they had been sexually assaulted.

Sharper’s arrest came as the NFL was dealing with off-field problems with players accused of crimes ranging from spousal abuse to murder.

The second woman, identified as Jane Doe 4, was with a friend when they were drugged by Sharper in his hotel room in 2013, hours after they met at a Sports Illustrated 50th anniversary party.

She woke up on a bed with her clothes on, blood coming out of her nose and did now know where she was. She said her friend had been sexually assaulted, and both fled fearing for their lives.

“It’s one thing to be a victim, but to be the victim that got ‘lucky’ in some eyes is not easy to live with,” Jane Doe 4 said. “When I think back to that night I wonder what he could have done to me. That’s not lucky. It’s haunting.”

The Associated Press does not generally name people who are victims of sex crimes.

Sharper retired from the league in 2011 after a 14-year career with the Green Bay Packers, the Minnesota Vikings and, finally, in New Orleans with the Saints, where he won a Super Bowl.

Lawyers for Sharper had vigorously disputed the charges before he abruptly gave up his defense in March 2015 on the eve of a preliminary hearing to decide if the Los Angeles case would go to trial.

From the Los Angeles courtroom, Sharper appeared by video-conferencing and pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting one woman and trying to attack another in suburban Phoenix in 2013.

An hour later, he pleaded no contest to drugging and raping two women he picked up at a West Hollywood bar on two occasions in late 2013 and early 2014.

The next day, he pleaded guilty via video to a reduced felony attempted sex assault charge for a Las Vegas case.

He later pleaded guilty in Louisiana to federal charges of drugging women so he could rape them and state charges to three counts of rape.

At Sharper’s sentencing in Louisiana federal court, he told the judge he wanted to “apologize a thousand times.”

On Tuesday in the Los Angeles courtroom, Sharper had nothing to say besides providing simple, short answers to routine legal sentencing questions posed by the judge. </s> LOS ANGELES — Former NFL star Darren Sharper's tour of shame and punishment reaches its conclusion Tuesday in the courthouse where he first admitted drugging and raping women in four states.

The sentencing in Los Angeles Superior Court marks the end of prosecutions that unmasked the popular former all-pro safety and Super Bowl champ as a serial rapist.

Sharper, 41, who told a federal judge in Louisiana that he wanted to "apologize a thousand times," will have one more opportunity for contrition, but it will have little bearing on his punishment.

Under the terms of a plea deal negotiated with prosecutors in four states, Sharper will be sentenced to a term that would require about eight more years behind bars. But that term was superseded by the New Orleans federal judge who rejected it as too lenient and sentenced him to 18 years in prison.

He has appealed the harsher federal sentence.

Sharper was working as an NFL network analyst when women in several cities began telling police they had blacked out while drinking with him and woke up groggy to discover they had been sexually assaulted.

Sharper's arrest also came as the NFL was dealing with off-field problems with players accused of crimes ranging from spousal abuse to murder.

Sharper retired from the league in 2011 after a 14-year career with the Green Bay Packers, the Minnesota Vikings and, finally, in New Orleans with the Saints, where he won a Super Bowl.

Lawyers for Sharper had vigorously disputed the charges before he abruptly gave up his defense in March 2015 on the eve of a preliminary hearing to decide if the Los Angeles case would go to trial.

From the Los Angeles courtroom, Sharper appeared by video-conferencing in a Phoenix courtroom and pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting one woman and trying to attack another in suburban Phoenix in 2013.

An hour later, he pleaded no contest to drugging and raping two women he picked up at a West Hollywood bar on two occasions in late 2013 and early 2014.

The next day, he pleaded guilty via video to a reduced felony attempted sex assault charge for a Las Vegas case.

He later pleaded guilty in Louisiana to federal charges of drugging women so he could rape them and state charges to three rape counts. </s> It was a routine the charismatic athlete had come to rely on.

Chat up a couple of women at a club. Show them that a TV personality and former NFL player can be down-to-earth and genuine. Convince the women that the night is young and there is more fun elsewhere. Ply them with drinks laced with sedatives that blacken their memories and incapacitate their bodies. Rape at least one of them.

For months, Darren Sharper’s actions played on repeat across four states. More than a dozen accusers came forward in a case that would ultimately require him to be sentenced in five jurisdictions, one of which was a federal court.

The final sentence was handed down Tuesday in a Los Angeles courtroom in which Sharper arrived shackled and in an orange jumpsuit, his signature goatee still intact.

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The 41-year-old was stoic as he listened to Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor sentence him to 20 years in prison for drugging and raping two women in Los Angeles.

A five-time Pro Bowl selection who was working as an analyst for the NFL Network, Sharper had approached two women at Bootsy Bellows, a nightclub in West Hollywood in October 2013. He invited them to another party, but said he had to stop at his hotel. Inside his room, he offered the women drinks. One woman awoke to find herself naked, and Sharper sexually assaulting her.

Weeks later, Sharper was at the same nightclub and invited two women to a party. Again, he stopped at his hotel. After the women awoke, they sought medical treatment.

Last year, Sharper pleaded guilty or no contest to drugging and raping a total of nine women in multiple states, although a judge said a pre-sentencing report indicated there were as many as 16 victims.

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His deal with Los Angeles prosecutors includes serving 50% of his sentence, minus time already served. A recently passed state law that increases parole chances for nonviolent criminals may also decrease the amount of time Sharper serves, as rape of an intoxicated person is not considered violent in California, Deputy Dist. Atty Alison Foster said.

In addition to receiving sentences from judges in Arizona, Nevada and Louisiana, Sharper was also ordered to serve more than 18 years by a federal judge in Louisiana. All sentences are to be served concurrently.

Foster called Pastor’s ruling appropriate.

If the case had gone to trial, Sharper’s maximum exposure would have been about 30 years, Foster said, but there would be no guarantee. The plea deal means there can be no appeal.

“That gives your victims some closure and saves them the trauma of having to testify,” she said.

Sharper did not make a statement at Tuesday’s proceedings, and his attorneys declined to comment.

Two of his victims, flanked by attorney Gloria Allred, however, did choose to speak.

The first, stood behind a lectern in the jury box, out of the sight line of her rapist. She started to speak but stopped. She trembled. She blinked. She cried.

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And then she spoke of the night she and a friend encountered Sharper at a club. After attending a party together, they were headed to another gathering, but Sharper said he first had to pick up something from his hotel room. He handed her a drink. Darkness filled her head.

“I can only imagine myself lying there like a vegetable while he took advantage of my body without my permission,” she said. “I have lost every bit of self-confidence I’ve ever had and am always in fear while alone. It doesn’t matter whether it’s day or night, I can see a guy and automatically in my head think, ‘What if this guy tries to rape me?’”

The woman said her surfing career fizzled. She found she couldn’t focus or strike up her usual passion for the sport. She lost her sponsor. She struggled to find her self-worth. “I feel lost in this world,” she said.

The other victim in the courtroom chose to sit on the witness stand, at one point meeting eyes with Sharper.

Her words came loud, but breathless, and at times she gasped to get through the tears.

Her friend was raped that night. She was not. But she can’t shake the blank footage that plays in her mind.

“I’ve tried to remember and I can’t, not a thing,” she said. “It’s the darkest moment in my life. It’s the moment when someone had complete control over me, I don’t know what happened to me, I don’t know what he did with me, I’ll never know.”

The woman said when she came to, her mouth and nose were bleeding. She vomited. She worried that a police report would mean Sharper would come after her.

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People told her she had been lucky, but she had nightmares of Sharper raping her, strangling her. She blamed herself. “It got so bad I stopped trying to sleep,” she said.

She was not herself in the final moments she could have shared with her sister who was battling brain cancer and died four months after the assault.

Sharper had stolen the little time she could have focused on her best friend, she said.

But Darren Sharper, she declared, will never take something so precious from another woman again.

corina.knoll@latimes.com

For more news from Southern California, follow me on Twitter: @corinaknoll

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UPDATES:

7:25 p.m.: This article was rewritten and updated with comments from two victims and a prosecutor.

This story was originally published at 10:40 a.m. </s> Sharper was sentenced as part of a plea deal he reached last year — a “global resolution” that his attorneys said helped resolve sexual assault cases filed against him in multiple states.

“I can only imagine myself lying there like a vegetable while he took advantage of my body without my permission,” one of the victims said in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom on Tuesday. “I have lost every bit of self-confidence I’ve ever had and am always in fear while alone. It doesn’t matter whether it’s day or night, I can see a guy and automatically in my head think, ‘What if this guy tries to rape me?’ ”

Superior Court Judge Michael E. Pastor noted the statements she and another victim gave as he sentenced the one-time Minnesota Vikings and Green Bay Packers player.

“I daresay that I cannot speak more eloquently or passionately about the horrible misconduct of Mr. Sharper and the unfathomable effect he has had on the two alleged victims,” the judge said. “I think their individual statements speak volumes as to this disgraceful abuse of trust and the behavior of Mr. Sharper.”

After Los Angeles authorities arrested Sharper on suspicion of sexual assault in January 2014, women in other cities came forward, alleging similar attacks. The former New Orleans Saints safety has been convicted of drugging and raping nine women in Los Angeles, Nevada, Arizona and Louisiana.

In August, a federal judge in New Orleans sentenced him to more than 18 years for the attacks. The judge said a federal presentencing report indicated there were 16 victims.

The sentence in Los Angeles is to be served at the same time as others around the country.

Sharper, a five-time Pro Bowler and a Super Bowl winner who retired in 2011, went on to work as an analyst for the NFL Network until his arrest in Los Angeles.

He pleaded no contest in March 2015 to the Los Angeles charges accusing him of drugging and raping two women. </s> Former NFL cornerback Brandon Browner was reportedly arrested in California Sunday on multiple charges, including kidnapping, false imprisonment and burglary.

NBC 4 Los Angeles reports police in the Los Angeles suburb of La Verne arrested the 33-year-old Browner Sunday afternoon on felony charges related to an incident at a residence that morning. According to the news report, police responded to a call at 10:07 a.m. about a man who allegedly broke into a home through a locked window. When the women inside attempted to flee, the intruder forced her back inside, and allegedly physically harmed her and threatened to kill her. He then fled with a watch valued at $20,000.

The report notes that the victim and Browner had a previous relationship, Browner had previously been arrested for domestic violence and the victim had a restraining order against him.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Browner has had at least five criminal cases filed against him since last October.

Browner last played in the NFL in 2015 with the Saints after winning Super Bowls the previous two seasons with the Patriots and Seahawks. He had been a key piece in Seattle's renowned "Legion of Boom" secondary, making the Pro Bowl in 2011 after three consecutive years as a CFL All-Star for the Calgary Stampeders. </s> Former NFL cornerback Brandon Browner faces a possible life prison sentence if convicted of charges that include attempted murder filed Tuesday against the Pomona resident, stemming from a break-in at his former girlfriend’s La Verne apartment, prosecutors said.

Browner, 33, was also charged with false imprisonment, first-degree residential robbery, first-degree burglary with someone present during the alleged action, and two misdemeanor child cruelty charges.

His arraignment, in which a plea is entered, was continued from Tuesday to July 30 in the Pomona Branch of Los Angeles County Superior Court, the District Attorney’s office said in a news release. He remained in custody in lieu of posting bond on $10 million bail.

Browner was arrested Sunday by La Verne police. Authorities said he broke into the former girlfriend’s apartment, chased her, dragged her and pushed her face into the carpet.

The woman’s two children were in the apartment during the incident, the district attorney’s office said.

Police said at the time of Browner’s arrest that he was previously in a relationship with the woman, and had been arrested before on suspicion of domestic violence against her.

Browner was arrested in La Verne in September 2017 on suspicion of making criminal threats against a woman. It was unclear if Browner was ever charged in that incident.

The woman later took out a restraining order against him. Police said Browner violated that restraining order when he went to the woman’s home Sunday.

Browner was raised in the San Fernando Valley — he played football for both Sylmar High School and James Monroe High School in North Hills.

Browner played football for Oregon State before signing with the Seattle Seahawks in 2011. He later played for the New England Patriots in 2014, the season when the team won the Super Bowl in 2015.

The case remains under investigation by La Verne police, the district attorney’s office said Tuesday. </s> Ex-NFL player Brandon Browner charged with trying to kill his ex

POMONA, Calif. (AP) - Prosecutors say former NFL cornerback Brandon Browner has been charged with trying to kill his ex-girlfriend after breaking into her Southern California home.

Browner, who won Super Bowls with the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots, was arrested Sunday east of Los Angeles.

The LA County District Attorney's Office says the 33-year-old was charged Tuesday with attempted murder, first-degree residential robbery and other counts. It wasn't immediately clear if he has a lawyer. Arraignment is scheduled for July 30.

Prosecutors say Browner broke into the apartment, chased and dragged the woman and then tried to smother her in a carpet. Prosecutors say he also stole a Rolex watch valued at about $20,000.

Browner is from nearby Pomona and played for Oregon State University before signing with the Seahawks in 2011. He also played for the New Orleans Saints in 2015. </s> Former NFL player Brandon Browner was arrested Sunday afternoon near Azusa, California after being wanted for a long list of charges, including kidnapping, burglary, false imprisonment and violation of a restraining order in relation to an incident that took place earlier in the morning.

Officers in the La Verne Police Department responded to a call at 10:07 a.m. on Sunday morning related to a man who broke into a home through a locked window. Browner was identified as the intruder and allegedly physically forced the victim back into her residence when she attempted to flee.

The former NFL pro allegedly physically harmed and made threats to kill the victim inside the residence per the La Verne PD. Browner fled the scene before police arrived and is alleged to have taken a Rolex watch valued at $20,000 from the victim before leaving the scene.

In addition, Browner had a previous relationship with the victim and had previously been arrested for domestic violence and was restrained from the victim according to police.

The La Verne Police Department located Browner on Sunday afternoon and took him into custody on felony charges related to the morning incident.

The Los Angeles native has previously been arrested for domestic battery and child endangerment in 2018 and possession of cocaine in 2017 per TMZ.

The 33-year-old was born in Los Angeles and attended high school in Sylmar.

Browner won two Super Bowls during his 11-year professional football career. The former cornerback was elected to the Pro Bowl in 2011 and played for the Denver Broncos, Seattle Seahawks, New England Patriots and New Orleans Saints during his NFL career, which spanned from 2005 to 2016. Browner also played for the Calgary Stampeders in the Canadian Football League.
Ex National Football League player Darren Sharper is sentenced to 20 years in prison for drugging and raping two women in the American city of Los Angeles, California. Sharper has been accused of attacking a dozen women across the United States.