Former NFL safety Darren Sharper made another court appearance in Louisiana Thursday and again apologized to the more than half a dozen female victims he was accused of drugging and raping in four different states, as a judge sentenced Sharper to 20 years in prison.
"There's a lot more to my life than this situation," the 40-year-old Sharper said in New Orleans Parish Criminal District Court Thursday, according to the New Orleans Advocate. "I am not a monster. I am not."
Thursday's sentencing stems from the state charges brought against Sharper, but the sentence will run concurrent with the 18-year sentence that Sharper received last week in New Orleans federal court. Sharper will receive credit for the two and a half years he has already been detained. He was originally arrested in January, 2014 in Los Angeles and charged with drugging and raping two women there.
One of Sharper's victims spoke in the same New Orleans courtroom Thursday, and said that Sharper has a "sickness."
"And you deserve much more punishment than you have received, I am sure," the woman said, according to the Advocate.
Judge Karen Herman called Sharper’s behavior “such an epic disappointment,” The Associated Press reported, and told him that his sentence would’ve been much more harsh had his case gone to a trial by jury. He pleaded guilty to two charges of second-degree rape and one of third-degree rape on Thursday.
Last year, Sharper's legal team negotiated a global settlement where Sharper would serve nine years in prison. The settlement addressed all rape and drug charges in four different states — Louisiana, Arizona, California and Nevada. Sharper faced both state and federal charges in Louisiana.
But the public backlash was severe, with critics claiming the punishment was far too lenient for the alleged heinous crimes Sharper committed. Earlier this year, a federal judge rejected Sharper's plea deal, paving the way for the 18-year sentence he was given last week. He still awaits formal sentencing in California and Nevada, and civil rights lawyer Gloria Allred — who represents two of Sharper's victims — said last week that she and her clients were looking forward to those court dates when Allred's clients would be able to make victim impact statements in front of Sharper.
Sharper was originally jailed in California while the different legal processes played out, but after he appeared in Los Angeles court last year and pleaded guilty to rape charges in the Arizona case and no contest to charges in the California case, he was moved to a federal prison in Louisiana. He will be moved to another federal facility outside of Louisiana to serve the remainder of his sentence.
Sharper was a Super Bowl champion with the Saints, and also played for the Packers and Vikings.
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