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Recently unsealed court records in the bankruptcy case of Shilo Sanders reveal that Sanders’ attorney plans to bring up some old family drama at Sanders’ Aug. 31 trial in order to help Sanders escape more than $11 million in debt.
The issue relates to a disputed incident in 2015, when Sanders was 15. At the time, Sanders was caught in the middle of acrimonious family relations between his mother, Pilar, and his father, Deion Sanders, now the football coach at Colorado.
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Shilo Sanders allegedly assaulted a security guard at his school that day after the security guard tried to confiscate his phone at the direction of Deion Sanders, who didn’t want his son speaking on the phone to his mother. That security guard, John Darjean, later sued Shilo Sanders for his injuries and won an $11.89 million default judgment against him in 2022.
The issue at trial is whether Shilo Sanders, now 26, acted willfully and maliciously against Darjean or acted in another state of mind out of fear in self-defense. Sanders’ attorney, Victor Vital, told Judge Michael Romero about his plans at a private hearing July 14.
"What I'm going to argue is that he didn't want to give up his phone because he believed his mom was his only lifeline, and he feared what would happen if he did not have a connection to his mom," Vital said at the hearing, according to the unsealed hearing transcript. "He's only 15 years old, so that's the argument. So there's two things happening at the same time. He's defying authority, but he's defying authority for a reason."
Unsealed transcript provides glimpse into Shilo Sanders trial
The bankruptcy court recently unsealed 155 pages of court records in the case after USA TODAY filed a motion to intervene and unseal them for greater transparency. Judge Romero granted the motion Aug. 12. The unsealed documents are sometimes redacted but provide a glimpse into what will be argued at trial and what the judge didn’t want to include in it.
The judge told Sanders’ attorney he didn’t want to hear about too much family history.
“If something happened on that day that incurred — that created the fear, fine,” the judge told him. “I want to hear about that day. But I don't want to hear this is some longstanding problem that he had.”
An attorney for Darjean, Ori Raphael, also outlined his plan at trial to show Sanders acted willfully and maliciously. If the judge determines Sanders’ debt stems from a willful and malicious injury, he will remain indebted to Darjean for the 2022 default judgment. If he determines Sanders acted in self-defense, as Sanders has claimed, the debt could be discharged, allowing Sanders to get a fresh start.
The incident in question came two years after his parents finalized their divorce in 2013.
"He's going to be sitting on the stand," Raphael said of Sanders, according to the July 14 hearing transcript. "I want to ask, 'Well, when your father called and told you to do something, which you defied and said no to him, did that make you upset? Did it upset you the fact that Deion, your father, called Darjean and told Darjean, who was also his subordinate at the school, to take your phone? Did that upset you because you have anger to your father?’ At that time, he kept running away from his father to be with his mother."
Timeframe and relevance of evidence at issue
The judge responded that kind of questioning would be relevant if it happened on the day of the incident in September 2015. Raphael wanted to expand the timeframe of the evidence at trial to show Shilo Sanders' state of mind and referenced a separate family matter within two weeks of the incident that was redacted from the unsealed transcript. Judge Romero said he wanted to keep the timeframe limited and relevant.
"Again, if he had a fight with his father six weeks before, that now is still carried, you could argue that somehow carried over, no, we're not going to go that far," the judge told Raphael, according to the transcript.
Trial testimony to come from previous video testimony
Shilo Sanders filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in October 2023 in an effort to free himself of the debt owed to Darjean. The $11.89 million default judgment against him came in a Texas court in 2022 after Sanders dropped his attorneys in the case in 2020 and then didn’t show up for the trial to defend himself.
Darjean is fighting Sanders’ efforts to erase the debt in court, arguing it is not allowed under the law because it stems from a willful and malicious injury. He said Sanders punched him and swung a roundhouse elbow into his neck area, aggravating a previous spinal injury and causing permanent injuries including incontinence.
Much of the witness testimony at the trial is expected to come from previous video depositions in the Texas civil case that led to the $11.89 million default judgment, according to the unsealed transcript.
Shilo Sanders' disciplinary history debated in pretrial hearing
Another issue at the private hearing July 14 was whether Sanders' disciplinary history could be used at trial. A day after the incident with Darjean in 2015, court records in the Texas case show Sanders was taken to a juvenile detention center following a separate incident at school not involving Darjean.
Sanders' attorney told the judge he didn’t think it was fair for his client’s disciplinary history to be part of the trial.
"So what happened the day after is not material to what was happening in the interpersonal dynamic between Darjean and Mr. Sanders in the brief encounter that the Court will hear about," Vital told the judge.
Raphael argued to broaden the evidence at trial to show the surrounding circumstances.
"All of that is relevant," Raphael told the judge. "How he treats teachers is relevant. By threatening a teacher, that is relevant."
The judge said he’d decide on allowing such evidence on a case-by-case basis.
Deion Sanders has declined comment on the bankruptcy case through the University of Colorado but previously referred to Darjean as a "grifter" who is out for money. In response, Darjean has pointed to evidence he has withstood scrutiny by several institutions previously, including the school and the Texas civil court.
Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email: [email protected]
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Unsealed records show Shilo Sanders plans family-drama defense in bankruptcy trial