Darren Sharper officially charged with two counts of rape

Darren Sharper will be arraigned on new charges on Feb. 14. (Donald Miralle/Getty Images) On Jan. 17, former NFL safety Darren Sharper was taken into custody

Doug Farrar | Feb 14, 2014

Darren Sharper officially charged with two counts of rape /

Darren Sharper will be arraigned on new charges on Feb. 14. (Donald Miralle/Getty Images)

On Jan. 17, former NFL safety Darren Sharper was taken into custody by the Los Angeles County Sherriff's Department on sexual assault charges. Police took Sharper into custody at around 3:00 p.m. and booked him two hours later. Bail was set and posted at $200,000, with Sharper due on court Feb. 14.

And on the morning of Feb. 14, a statement from the office of Los Angeles District Attorney Jackie Lacey said that Sharper will be charged with two counts of rape by use of drugs, four counts of furnishing a controlled substance and one count of possession of a controlled substance. All the charges are felonies, and Sharper could face more to 30 years in prison if found guilty of all the charges. He will be arraigned on Friday morning.

According to the D.A.'s statement, Sharper drugged and raped two women -- one last October and one in January -- using zolpidem and morphine to sedate women he had met.

From the statement:

[Deputy District Attorney Stacy] Okun-Wiese "will ask a judge to raise his bail to $10 million because Sharper, who lives in Miami, Fla., is suspected of raping women in Arizona, Nevada and Louisiana."

In a motion filed today to increase his bail, prosecutors said Sharper met two women at a West Hollywood nightclub on Oct. 30, 2013, and invited them to another party.

On the way, Sharper allegedly told them he had to stop by his Los Angeles hotel room to pick something up and invited both women up. While there, he allegedly gave each woman a shot. Each woman passed out. Jane Doe #1 allegedly woke up naked hours later with Sharper sexually assaulting her. The second woman allegedly awoke and “interrupted his actions,” the motion states.

The two women then left the hotel.

On Jan. 14, Sharper met two separate women at the same West Hollywood nightclub and invited them to a party. Stopping at his hotel, he allegedly invited both up to his room, offered them a shot, and each passed out.

When they woke up hours later on Jan. 15, one woman believed she’d been sexually assaulted. Both women left his hotel and sought medical treatment.

In addition, per the website for New Orleans television station WWL-TV, the New Orleans Police Department is investigating a Sept. 24, 2013 sexual assault complaint against Sharper. The incident allegedly occurred in the city’s Warehouse District.

“New Orleans police received a complaint from an alleged victim,” said District Attorney spokesman Chris Bowman. “The police referred the case to our office for consultation. The matter is currently under investigation and we will make no further comment on any matter under investigation.”

Published Feb 14, 2014

DOUG FARRAR

SI.com contributing NFL writer and Seattle resident Doug Farrar started writing about football locally in 2002, and became Football Outsiders' West Coast NFL guy in 2006. He was fascinated by FO's idea to combine Bill James with Dr. Z, and wrote for the site for six years. He wrote a game-tape column called "Cover-2" for a number of years, and contributed to six editions of "Pro Football Prospectus" and the "Football Outsiders Almanac." In 2009, Doug was invited to join Yahoo Sports' NFL team, and covered Senior Bowls, scouting combines, Super Bowls, and all sorts of other things for Yahoo Sports and the Shutdown Corner blog through June, 2013. Doug received the proverbial offer he couldn't refuse from SI.com in 2013, and that was that. Doug has also written for the Seattle Times, the Washington Post, the New York Sun, FOX Sports, ESPN.com, and ESPN The Magazine. He also makes regular appearances on several local and national radio shows, and has hosted several podcasts over the years. He counts Dan Jenkins, Thomas Boswell, Frank Deford, Ralph Wiley, Peter King, and Bill Simmons as the writers who made him want to do this for a living. In his rare off-time, Doug can be found reading, hiking, working out, searching for new Hendrix, Who, and MC5 bootlegs, and wondering if the Mariners will ever be good again.