Darren Sharper, a former NFL star player, has pleaded guilty to drugging and raping three women in New Orleans.
Sharper has a lot of charges against him and has already pleaded no contest to “distributing drugs with the intent to commit rape” in Western states. Now, he has changed his plea from not guilty to guilty, on similar charges but in New Orleans.
He has been jailed since February of 2014 on rape charges. In March, he pleaded guilty to sexual assault in Arizona and also pleaded no contest for the same charge in California. He has been sentenced to nine years for the charge in Arizona and could get nine more years for the one in California. Also in March, he pleaded guilty in Nevada to attempted sexual assault, which could carry up to eight years.
He has federal and state charges but this plea, as part of a multi-state deal, means he would serve just 10 years in jail total.
Darren Sharper was a good NFL player, having been an All Pro star six different times.
He is just another stain on the NFL, which has a scary history of violence against women. But this sadly is just indicative of the rape culture in our society as a whole. The time Sharper will likely spend in jail also represents a huge problem with our “justice” system, considering 10 years is not a lot for a serial violent offender like Sharper. Too often,?we do not treat rape and sexual assault, or attempting to do so, as that serious of a crime. And that HAS to change.
