Lincoln Riley joins coaches facing major pressure in 2026
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- A federal judge ruled that Colorado football coach Deion Sanders must be available to testify in his son Shilo’s bankruptcy trial.
- Shilo Sanders filed for bankruptcy to discharge an $11.89 million debt owed to a former school security guard he allegedly assaulted in 2015.
- Deion Sanders’ attorney argued his testimony is irrelevant and would be an undue burden during the football season’s opening week.
Colorado football coach Deion Sanders must be available to testify remotely in his son Shilo’s looming bankruptcy trial at 1:30 p.m. MT on Sept. 4, the day after his team opens the season at Georgia Tech, according to a ruling by a federal bankruptcy judge Aug. 27.
Judge Michael E. Romero made the decision to accommodate Deion Sanders’ schedule despite the fact that attorneys in the case indicated the trial could be almost over by Friday, Sept. 4, except for any testimony needed from Deion Sanders. The trial starts Monday, Aug. 31 in Denver.
Sanders’ attorney, Harvey Steinberg, argued his client’s testimony is irrelevant to the case and tried to push any testimony from Deion Sanders to later in the day on Sept. 4 because the Buffaloes might be traveling home that day after the game.
“It’s either that or we keep him here (in Colorado),” Judge Romero told him during a Zoom hearing about it Aug. 27.
The judge said Sanders must be available then only for rebuttal testimony, if necessary, as his son Shilo tries to get out of more than $11 million in debt. Whether Deion Sanders testifies at all depends on what topics come up earlier in the trial from Shilo Sanders’ attorneys. According to Steinberg, Shilo Sanders’ legal team “had no intent to open the door to testimony by Mr. (Deion) Sanders.”
The judge noted Deion Sanders could take an earlier flight home
The judge’s decision comes against the wishes of the plaintiff’s attorney in the case, Ori Raphael, who wanted Deion Sanders to be required to testify not just for rebuttal testimony but also for his case in chief. He wanted Deion Sanders to be available earlier, such as on Wednesday, Sept 2. or Thursday, Sept. 3 before the game.
“We can’t do it Wednesday or Thursday,” Steinberg said in response. “That’s not going to happen, judge, with all due respect. But Friday afternoon (Sept. 4) at 3 o’clock, we can be available by Zoom.”
The judge then gave him an option of 1 p.m. or 1:30 p.m. Sept. 4 instead. Steinberg chose the latter. The judge then noted Deion Sanders could take an earlier flight out of Atlanta Sept. 4 at 6 a.m.
“He has responsibilities to the team,” Steinberg responded. “I appreciate that. Trust me, it’s not about the timing. It’s about his contractual responsibilities.”
Sanders, 26, had fought to avoid being required to testify at the trial at all through his attorney, who argued it would place an undue burden on him as his team prepares to open the season at Georgia Tech Sept. 3. The Buffaloes leave for Atlanta Sept. 1, conflicting with a trial that might last five days through Sept. 4.
What is Shilo Sanders’ bankruptcy trial about?
Shilo Sanders, a former Colorado safety, filed for bankruptcy in October 2023, hoping to discharge more than $11 million in debt, almost all of it owed to a former security guard at his school in Dallas, John Darjean, the plaintiff in the bankruptcy case.
The debt stems from an incident in 2015, when Darjean accused then-15-year-old Shilo Sanders of assaulting him and permanently injuring him at school. Darjean sued in 2016 and then won an $11.89 million civil default judgment against Shilo Sanders in 2022 after Sanders didn’t show up in court for the trial.
The judge in that case wrote in her final judgment that “Shilo Sanders did in fact cause physical harm and injuries to John Darjean by assaulting him” on Sept. 17, 2015.
The issue at trial now is whether Sanders can get out of that debt. Darjean wants to collect on all of it and argues Sanders shouldn’t be allowed to discharge that debt because it stems from a “willful and malicious injury” – a specific exception to debt discharges under bankruptcy law.
What is Deion Sanders’ relevance to his son’s bankruptcy case?
Shilo Sanders said he acted against Darjean in self-defense, not with malicious intent. His father’s potential relevance to this case includes the fact that he told Darjean to confiscate Shilo’s phone that day, allegedly because he didn’t want him talking to his mother. The physical conflict then occurred when Darjean tried to confiscate his phone.
Ori Raphael, Darjean’s attorney, told the judge Thursday that Shilo Sanders was afraid of going to a juvenile facility and perceived Darjean as the “agent of his father.”
The judge said he wanted Deion Sanders to avoid having to testify in the trial twice, so he ruled to require him to testify on rebuttal only, if necessary. To address Deion Sanders’ conversation with Darjean on the phone that day, he ruled Deion Sanders’ previous deposition testimony in Darjean’s lawsuit from January 2018 could be used instead of live testimony from Sanders.
“The only thing that Deion Sanders is purported to have said during that conversation was, ‘Treat him like you would anyone else,’” said Steinberg, Deion Sanders’ attorney.
Judge Romero also questioned the value of Deion Sanders’ testimony as part of the main case since he claimed not to have remembered much about that day in 2015 during his previous deposition testimony several years ago in the Texas case.
“He didn’t remember three-quarters of the things he was asked in his deposition, and that deposition was taken just a year or so after the incident,” Judge Romero said. “How the passage of 10 years is going to, all of a sudden, create more recollections, I’m having some difficulties.”
Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email: bschrotenb@usatoday.com