USA DAWN: NEWS AND UPDATES

The former NFL player Darren Sharper has been sentenced to 18 years in prison in a case in which he was accused of drugging and raping as many as 16 women in four states. Judge Jane Triche Milazzo sentenced Sharper on Thursday. He had pleaded guilty or no-contest in federal court in New Orleans, and state courts in Louisiana, Arizona, California and Nevada to charges arising from the allegations of drugging and raping women. Prosecutors suggested a nine-year prison term for Sharper under a multi-jurisdictional plea deal, but Milazzo rejected it as too lenient in June. The sentence was 15 months short of the maximum. He was also fined $20,000. Sharper pleaded guilty in federal court to three counts of distributing drugs with rape as the aim. He or his friend Brandon Licciardi, a former sheriff’s deputy in neighboring St Bernard Parish, put anti-anxiety drugs or sedatives into women’s drinks so they could rape them, according to a 15-page statement signed as part of ...

Johnny Manziel made his first court appearance in front of judge Thursday morning after being indicted on a misdemeanor assault charge. Manziel's charge is a Class A misdemeanor that carries up to a year in jail and a $4,000 fine in Dallas. The judge told Manziel that he could have no contact - no calls, no texts, no emails, no letters, no visits - with Colleen Crowley, Manziel's ex-girlfriend who has alleged that Manziel struck her during an incident in January. Manziel turned himself in to authories Wednesday, leading to a very interesting mug shot in which Manziel appears to be smiling.  AP Photo/Highland Park Department of Public Safety)   Manziel the tweeted - later deleted - a joke about the mug shot. "Just thankful I had a shirt this time," he wrote. Manziel was referencing to his 2012 arrest in which he failed to properly identify himself to police after a fight in College Station, Texas. Manziel was shirtless for that mug shot.  Th...