New Orleans police insisted on extradition of Darren Sharper
By Mike Dyce
The authorities in New Orleans aren’t taking the allegations of rape surrounding former NFL safety Darren Sharper lightly. According to Naomi Martin of the New Orleans Times-Picayune, they declined an offer from Sharper to fly himself to New Orleans.
Instead, the New Orleans police department had him arrested in Los Angeles and extradited to Louisiana. That means two officers will fly to Los Angeles to bring Sharper back.
“After conducting many interviews and collecting substantial evidence, the New Orleans Police Department issued an arrest warrant for Darren Sharper, who is accused of the aggravated rapes of two women in New Orleans,” Police Superintendent Ronal Serpas said in a statement. “If convicted of these crimes, Mr. Sharper may be sentenced to two life sentences in prison.
“This police department was not willing to negotiate with Sharper’s attorneys considering the dire seriousness of these allegations.”
Sharper’s local attorney, Nandi Campbell, doesn’t quite understand.
“If he was already under wraps in Los Angeles, I thought that they (New Orleans police) would be more than happy to have him fly in,” Campbell said. “There’s nothing abnormal about somebody saying ‘I want to turn myself in,’ especially somebody who is as high profile as he is. But we were told the order not to allow him to do that came straight from Serpas. … I guess they prefer to pay to send people out to get him and then bring him back here.”