Ex-NFL player Sharper appearing in California court over rape charges, Arizona extradition

LOS ANGELES – Former NFL All-Pro safety Darren Sharper was set to return to court in California on Wednesday for a pair of hearings as he faces sexual assault allegations in several states. The 38-year-old All-Pro safety and Super Bowl winner was scheduled to appear Wednesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court, where he's charged with drugging and raping two women in October after meeting them at a West Hollywood nightclub. The judge and attorneys plan to set a date for a preliminary hearing that would determine whether there is enough evidence to order Sharper to stand trial on the charges. A second hearing is scheduled immediately afterward on Sharper's extradition to Arizona, where prosecutors are alleging that he drugged three women with sleeping pills and sexually assaulted them in Tempe in November. Sharper was being held in a Los Angeles jail as prosecutors in the two states have been vying to try him first. A California judge had set Sharper's bail at $1 million but later ruled that he should remain in jail without bail after the Arizona indictment. Sharper has also been investigated for alleged sexual assaults in Louisiana, Nevada and Florida, where authorities in May found insufficient evidence to charge him. He has pleaded not guilty to the California charges, and he and his lawyers have denied the allegations in the other states. Sharper, 38, played for the Green Bay Packers, Minnesota Vikings and New Orleans Saints in a 14-year career that ended in 2010.