[StBernard] In ongoing Darren Sharper rape investigation, authorities look at St. Bernard sheriff's deputy

[Westley Annis]

In ongoing Darren Sharper rape investigation, authorities look at St.
Bernard sheriff's deputy

Ken Daley, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune
Print Ken Daley, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune By Ken Daley, NOLA.com | The
Times-Picayune 
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on July 21, 2014 at 11:32 AM, updated July 21, 2014 at 11:48 AM

The Darren Sharper rape investigation includes a St. Bernard Parish
sheriff's deputy who introduced the former Saints player to one of the two
women who says she was drugged and raped by Sharper in New Orleans last
September, court documents and a law enforcement source confirm.

Sgt. Brandon Licciardi, who recently was taken off the street and assigned
to a desk job by St. Bernard Sheriff James Pohlmann amid an internal
inquiry, has voluntarily provided NOPD investigators with a series of phone
text and video messages exchanged with Sharper in the hours surrounding the
alleged rapes in Sharper's luxury apartment, according to his attorney Pat
Fanning.

But Fanning said Licciardi has not been involved in any criminal activity.

"I don't think the sheriff has any reason to believe Mr. Licciardi has
committed a crime," Fanning said. "I think he was reassigned, out of an
abundance of caution, because it is very common for that to happen in an
agency when a law-enforcement investigation involves one of their officers."

Fanning added: "If he thought (Licciardi) was guilty of some criminal
conduct, he would have fired him."

Licciardi has not been charged with any crime, and investigators have
declined comment on the nature of his potential involvement in the case.

A recent Sports Illustrated story, citing an unnamed source, said New
Orleans police detectives "have asked at least one Licciardi associate about
Licciardi's allegedly improper use of a powerful medication and his
relationship with Sharper."

Fanning said he is "baffled as to what they might be investigating my client
about. ... Any belief that he gave Sharper drugs, that's the first I've
heard of it. And, in fact, the evidence I've seen directly contradicts
that."

A source familiar with the investigation said Licciardi is likely to remain
under investigation in connection with the case until early fall.

Licciardi, 29, was reassigned June 19 from the St. Bernard traffic division
to an administrative desk job that stripped him of his service weapon and
uniform. Sheriff Pohlmann's office acknowledged the reassignment but
declined comment on the reason.

A newly obtained subpoena revealed that an investigator with the Orleans
Parish District Attorney's office was looking into whether Sharper or
Licciardi visited the Renaissance New Orleans Arts hotel at 700
Tchoupitoulas St. last Aug. 31. That date is 23 days before police say
Sharper and another man, Erik Nunez of Metairie, raped two impaired women in
Sharper's third-floor apartment directly across the street at 711
Tchoupitoulas St.

The relevance of that date is unclear.

The subpoena ordered the hotel to turn over "all guest history for Darren
Sharper, any room registration records from 8/31/2013, any lock
interrogation data (key card information), and security video showing or
related to the presence of Darren Sharper or Brandon Licciardi."

Derek Tuellier, the hotel's director of operations, declined comment on the
subpoena.

District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro's office has declined to publicly comment
on the investigation.

Fanning said he couldn't speculate about the relevance of the subpoena,
which was served on the hotel in late April.

"My client's only involvement on the night that Sharper has been charged
that he raped those girls is that my client introduced him to one of them,"
Fanning said. "He was under investigation because he put them together. But
he did so certainly not knowing anything like this was going to happen."

The NOPD obtained arrest warrants on Feb. 27 for Sharper and Nunez, accusing
each of two counts of aggravated rape. Prosecutors have not yet brought
charges against either.

Sharper is under indictment or investigation in four states for accusations
that he raped women who unknowingly accepted drinks from him that were laced
with the powerful sedative Zolpidem. Sharper, 38, has pleaded not guilty in
the first case being prosecuted in Los Angeles. The five-time Pro Bowl
defensive back has been jailed there since Feb. 27.

Sharper also has been indicted in Arizona, where police say he drugged three
women and sexually assaulted two of them in their Tempe apartment. Arizona
prosecutors have said they hope to try Sharper in their state after his Los
Angeles charges are resolved.

In Louisiana, the NOPD's arrest warrants said Sharper and Nunez "admitted to
other known witnesses" that they had sex with two women in Sharper's
apartment "without their knowledge or permission." Nunez remains free on a
$400,000 bond. The next hearing in his case is set for Oct. 28.

In all of Sharper's cases -- including a fourth still being investigated in
Las Vegas -- the pattern of behavior with which he is accused is the same.
Sharper met women at a nightclub, provided them sedative-laced drinks, then
sexually assaulted them while they were blacked out or impaired,
investigators allege in the cases. A fifth such investigation of Sharper in
South Florida was dropped in May for lack of evidence.

Sports Illustrated reported that Sharper and Licciardi struck up a
friendship in the days leading up to the Saints' appearance in Super Bowl
XLIV in February 2010. The magazine said the friendship was beneficial to
Licciardi, who co-manages a sports-themed daiquiri bar in Arabi owned by his
family. That bar, The Daq Shaq, still has a message promoting an August 2012
personal appearance by Sharper gracing the front of its Facebook page.