Sharper indicted for rape in La.

ALMOST 10 months after the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office charged former NFL safety Darren Sharper with seven felony counts, including two counts of rape by use of drugs, a Louisiana grand jury returned an indictment Friday charging the 39-year-old with aggravated rape and simple rape.

Sharper also faces federal charges in a separate indictment, after the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of Louisiana charged him and an associate with conspiracy to distribute Schedule IV controlled substances — Alprazolam, Diazepam and Zolpidem, drugs the men are alleged to have used on women — “with intent to commit rape and two counts of distributing these substances with intent to commit rape,” according to a prepared statement from U.S. Attorney Kenneth Polite Jr.’s office.

If convicted of the aggravated rape charge in Louisiana, Sharper would face “life imprisonment at hard labor without benefit of parole, probation or suspension of sentence,” according to a statement issued by the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s office earlier this year, citing Louisiana state law. The Orleans Parish DA obtained arrest warrants for Sharper and his acquaintance, Erik Nunez, on Feb. 27.

Sharper was indicted on two counts of aggravated rape and one count of simple rape; Nunez was indicted on two counts of aggravated rape and one count of obstruction of justice, and another Sharper acquaintance, Brandon Licciardi, was indicted on three counts of human trafficking, one count of aggravated rape and one count of aggravated battery. Licciardi, the other man charged in the federal indictment along with Sharper, was a sergeant who worked in the traffic division of the St. Bernard (La.) Sheriff’s Office until being reassigned in June after he was under investigation. He resigned Friday, according to a statement from the St. Bernard Sheriff’s office.

Sharper has already pleaded not guilty to charges in the L.A. County case. He remains jailed in Los Angeles. His lead attorney, Blair Berk, did not return a call and email from the Daily News for comment.

Sharper was served an indictment by Tempe, Ariz. detectives March 12, and he was charged with two counts of sexual assault and three counts of administering dangerous drugs in that case. A Las Vegas investigation into similar alleged criminal behavior by Sharper — drugging women and sexually assaulting them — is still open, according to a Las Vegas Metro Police spokesman. A Miami Beach investigation of Sharper for alleged sexual assault was closed in May and no charges were filed.

Sharper played for the Packers, Vikings and Saints, and won a Super Bowl ring with New Orleans. He was an analyst with the NFL Network after his playing days but was fired in late February.