NFL star and record-breaking safety Darren Sharper helped the New Orleans Saints to their first — and only — Super Bowl win in 2010. Five years later, Sharper stood in a Los Angeles courtroom and agreed to plead guilty or no contest to charges that he had drugged and raped women in four states.
It was a rampage that could have been stopped, according to a new investigation by ProPublica and The New Orleans Advocate. Nine women had reported being raped or drugged by Sharper to four different law enforcement agencies before his January 2014 capture. But police and prosecutors failed to investigate fully the women's allegations, the investigation found. Some victims and eyewitnesses felt their claims were downplayed. Corroborating evidence, including DNA matches and video surveillance, was disregarded or put on hold. Perhaps most critically, police did not inquire into Sharper's history — which could have turned up the previous complaints against him.
Sharper's story illustrates a wider problem in the prosecution of sexual assaults in America. Law enforcement investigation are often cursory, sometimes incompetent, almost always done in ignorance of the suspect's past sexual assault history.
Join our reporters on Thursday at 11 a.m. EST for a discussion on the Darren Sharper case, how this story was reported and how Sharper was able to perpetuate these crimes.
The chat will include ProPublica reporters T. Christian Miller (@txtianmiller) and Ryan Gabrielson (@ryangabrielson), New Orleans Advocate reporters Ramon Vargas (@rvargasadvocate) and John Simerman (@johnsimerman), and Sports Illustrated reporter Thayer Evans (@thayerevanssi).
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