Ex-NFL player Sharper sentenced to up to 8 years in Las Vegas sex assault case

Oct 27 (Reuters) - Former National Football League player Darren Sharper was sentenced to up to eight years in prison by a Las Vegas judge on Thursday after pleading guilty to a charge of attempted sexual assault, court officials said. Sharper, who retired from the NFL in 2011 after helping lead the New Orleans Saints to a Super Bowl championship, did not appear in court as he is in prison after pleading guilty in Louisiana to drugging three unsuspecting women and having sex with them while they were incapacitated. He also pleaded guilty or no contest last year to rape or attempted rape charges involving nine women, including in Arizona and California. Clark County Courts spokeswoman Mary Ann Price said Sharper was sentenced on Thursday to 36 months to 96 months. It was not immediately clear if the sentence would be served following his current prison sentence or if he would be given credit for serving the Nevada sentence while he is prison in the Louisiana case. Sharper's attorney could not be immediately reached for comment. In a statement read in court on Thursday by the victim's attorney, Gloria Allred, the victim railed against Sharper's actions as well a legal system that she said abandoned her. "Darren has taken a plea for attempted sexual assault regarding my case. He didn't try to assault me he did," she said in the statement. "I didn't agree to having flash backs or PTSD, he gave it to me without me wanting it. I was never consulted on this plea deal in my case and I believe that he should get the maximum penalty for sexual assault not this plea." Sharper's 14-year career in the NFL included stints with the Green Bay Packers and the Minnesota Vikings. He was working as an NFL Network analyst when women began to allege they had blacked out while drinking with him and woke up to find they had been sexually abused. (Reporting by Curtis Skinner in San Francisco; Editing by Alex Dobuzinskis and Peter Cooney)