Rape victim to Darren Sharper at sentencing: "Go to hell"
NEW ORLEANS -- Former NFL star Darren Sharper has been sentenced to 18 years in prison in a case where he was accused of drugging and raping or attempting to rape women in four states.
Judge Jane Triche Milazzo sentenced Sharper on Thursday. He had pleaded guilty or no-contest to charges arising from the allegations of drugging and raping women in federal court in New Orleans, and state courts in Louisiana, Arizona, California and Nevada.
Both the former NFL star and a woman he admitted drugging and raping made emotional statements before Sharper was sentenced.
Sharper’s voice thickened and broke as he said he apologized “a thousand times” to the women he abused and to his family and friends. He said “I lived my life right for 38 years and then I took this path.” Sharper said he’s still trying to figure out why he did.
The woman said Sharper was so arrogant and “twisted” that he kept drugging and raping women even after he knew the attack on her was being investigated. She was one of two women Sharper drugged and raped at his condo after a night of partying in September 2013, according to the New Orleans Advocate.
She said a mistake is something that happens once and is corrected, but it was a way of life for Sharper and his friends.
Her voice broke often during her long statement. According to the Advocate, the woman said the attack sickened her so much that she became nauseous every time she brushed her teeth, and said she had to share a bed with her mother in order to sleep.
She said she never would have stopped pushing for Sharper to face justice, the paper reports.
“You can’t do what you did to me or any other girl and get away with it,” the woman said. “Not under my watch.”
Her last words to him were: “Go to hell.”
Prosecutors suggested a 9-year prison term for Sharper under a multi-jurisdictional plea deal, but Milazzo rejected it as too lenient in June. The sentence was 15 months short of the maximum. He was also fined $20,000.
Sharper pleaded guilty in federal court to three counts of distributing drugs with rape as the aim. He or his friend Brandon Licciardi, a former sheriff’s deputy in neighboring St. Bernard Parish, put anti-anxiety drugs or sedatives into women’s drinks so they could rape them, according to a 15-page statement signed as part of that plea.
Milazzo has scheduled sentencing Oct. 13 for Licciardi and a second New Orleans codefendant, Erik Nunez.
Charges around the country involve nine victims, but Milazzo has said in court that there may be as many as 16.
Like Sharper, Licciardi and Nunez admitted distributing drugs with the intent to commit rape. Their plea agreements say Licciardi has accepted a 17-year sentence, with 10 years for Nunez.
Sharper was named All-Pro six times and chosen for the Pro Bowl five times during a career that included stints with the Green Bay Packers and Minnesota Vikings. He played in two Super Bowls, one with the Packers as a rookie and one with New Orleans Saints when they won in 2010.
He ended a 14-year career in 2011. He was working as an NFL network analyst when women began telling police in several cities similar stories of blacking out while drinking with him and waking up groggy to find they had been sexually abused.