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Ex-NFL player Sharper to begin changing pleas in rape cases

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In this April 18, 2014 file photo, former NFL football All-Pro safety Darren Sharper appears in Superior Court in Los Angeles.

LOS ANGELES » Former NFL All-Pro Darren Sharper was expected to appear in one court in person Monday and another via video to enter pleas as he seeks to resolve rape and drugging allegations involving women in four different states.

A change-of-plea hearing was scheduled for Sharper in a court in Los Angeles. He’s then scheduled to enter a new plea via video conferencing in Arizona. The cases combined with others in Nevada and Louisiana are likely to lead to a long prison sentence.

In each state he’s accused of drugging and sexually assaulting two women when they were unconscious or otherwise unable to resist or consent.

Similar hearings will follow in Las Vegas this week and in New Orleans in the next month.

Sharper’s attorney on Friday announced that Sharper has reached agreements with prosecutors in all of the cases against him.

The 39-year-old former safety retired from the NFL in 2011 after winning a Super Bowl with the New Orleans Saints. He had a 14-year career with three teams and later worked as an analyst for the NFL network.

The alleged sexual assaults all happened since Sharper’s retirement as a player.

It was not clear what he would plead to in Monday’s hearings.

Only prosecutors in Nevada, where Sharper is scheduled to change his plea Tuesday, provided details of their part of the deal. There, he is expected to plead guilty to one felony charge of attempted sexual assault, with the expectation that he’ll face between 38 months and eight years in prison, Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson told The Associated Press.

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