Arrest Warrants issued for Darren Sharper and Erik Nunez

The New Orleans Police Department announced Thursday afternoon that they have arrest warrants for Darren Sharper and Erik Nunez, who are wanted on two counts of aggravated rape.  The 26-year-old Nunez is facing charges with the 38-year-old former NFL safety for the rapes, which are alleged to have occurred at an apartment in the Central Business District last September.  One woman claims that she met Sharper at a function for Saints football players on September 22.  Afterwards, according to the police report, she accompanied him to a bar, where he gave her a drink laced with memory-affecting drugs.  She has no memory of events following the drink, she alleges, until she awoke at 10am on September 23, with Sharper on top of her and sexually assaulting her.

The arrest warrants come over a month after Sharper was arrested in Los Angeles for allegations of rape, which have also surfaced in multiple other states.  In each case, he is alleged to have drugged his victims and proceeded to sexually assault them while they were unconscious and, in some cases, as they awoke and protested.  New Orleans police have said that the investigation is ongoing, and that additional arrests are possible.

Sharper has been suspended from his job as a commentator for the NFL network, and is due back in court in Los Angeles on April 15.  Should either he or his associate be tried for aggravated rape in Louisiana, a conviction will carry a mandatory life sentence without parole.