Bankruptcy judge questioned Shilo Sanders' no-show at previous trial

DENVER – The federal judge overseeing the bankruptcy case of Colorado football player Shilo Sanders asked several questions last week about a critical issue in this whole strange saga.

Why did Shilo Sanders not show up for his trial in Texas in 2022 after being sued by a security guard at his school in Texas?

His no-show at trial led to a $11.89 million default judgment against him, which in turn led him to file for bankruptcy last year.

If he had shown up or hired an attorney to help, he could have defended himself or negotiated a settlement to avoid this worst-case outcome. He’s instead had to resort to trying to get that debt erased in bankruptcy court.

The bankruptcy judge held a court hearing in the case last week.

“It was a default trial; my client did not have a chance to share his side of the story,” Shilo’s attorney, Victor Vital, told the judge in the hearing.

“He didn’t have a chance?” Judge Michael Romero asked. “He intentionally chose not to show up.”

“I don’t agree with that, Your Honor,” Vital said.

Sanders is the son of Colorado coach Deion Sanders. What he did or didn’t do in that Texas court case now has him in a financial jam that’s led to an inspection of his apartment and a pursuit for more information about his property.

How it got to this point

Shilo Sanders, now 24, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy last year in an effort to discharge the debt he owes to John Darjean, a former security guard at his school in Dallas. Darjean accused Sanders of throwing an elbow into his upper chest area and punching him when Darjean tried to confiscate his phone at school in 2015, when Shilo was 15 years old. As a result of the alleged assault, Darjean claimed he suffered severe and permanent injuries to his spine, leaving him incontinent.

Darjean sued Shilo and his parents for damages in 2016 – a civil lawsuit in Texas that they fought for years, including in deposition testimony by Shilo and counterclaims filed by Shilo against Darjean. Deion and Shilo Sanders described Darjean as the aggressor, not Shilo.

But after both parents were dropped from the case by early 2019, Shilo went off to college in South Carolina that year as the sole remaining defendant in the case at age 19.

‘There was no evidence he was aware of the trial’

In 2020, he dropped his attorneys in the Texas civil case and didn’t hire new ones until long after the trial was over. His previous attorneys told the court in 2020 that they had “been informed by Sanders that he is unwilling or unable to continue funding the defense of this case.”

Trial notices later went to his email address and address in South Carolina after he had transferred to play football for his dad at Jackson State, according to court records. If he had kept an attorney to receive notices for him, he wouldn’t have missed it.

“Did he notify the court of his whereabouts at all so he could receive notice of the trial?” Judge Romero asked.

“I’m not aware of that,” Vital said. “I know that mailings went to him that were returned undeliverable.”

“It’s his duty to notify a court when he moves so he can receive official notices… is it not?” the judge asked.

“It’s incumbent upon a party to notify the court of his whereabouts,” Vital said. “What I will say, Your Honor, in response to what you’re asking, there’s no evidence he was aware of the trial.”

No-show leads to default judgment against Shilo Sanders

The Texas case instead went to trial without him in 2022, where the judge considered evidence in the case: 76 exhibits and six witnesses, according to Darjean’s attorney, Ori Raphael.

The judge then issued the $11.89 million default judgment against Sanders, along with findings of fact and conclusions of law.

Shilo was in his teens when much of the litigation happened and just 22 when it went to trial.

“I don’t know many early-20s individuals who would be well-versed in understanding the consequences of their actions in a legal proceeding,” said attorney Kate Buck of the firm McCarter & English, who is not involved in this case but has worked on bankruptcy and sports cases.

“I just wonder where it went wrong that he didn’t have the guidance to understand the importance of his participation in trial and to have representation all along the way,” Buck said. “There may have been any number of reasons that things went the way they did, but it does seem sort of like a parade of horribles in a sense that something he did as a minor continued to follow him into adulthood.”

Vital told the judge he only knows the notices were returned as undeliverable.

“I’m not aware of what he did or did not do,” Vital told Romero. Shilo himself said in July that "everybody is gonna know the truth about everything" someday but declined to get more specific. The University of Colorado said he and his father would not comment further on the pending case.

Was he 'willful and malicious' in 2015?

The judgment and findings from the Texas court left no doubt about who was found responsible for Darjean’s injuries.

“The Court finds that John Darjean’s injuries and damages were a foreseeable consequence of the physical assault perpetrated by Shilo Sanders,” said the findings and conclusions signed by a judge in Texas in April 2022.

A big question about that now is what to read into that judgment and findings. Darjean’s attorneys have asked the judge to rule in summary judgment that the debt is not dischargeable under the law because it stems from a “willful and malicious” injury from the debtor – a specific exception to discharges in bankruptcy law.

But those exact words don’t appear in the default judgment and findings against Shilo Sanders, leading the judge to question whether there might need to be a trial to answer that question: Was Sanders acting willfully and maliciously then? This relates to his state of mind at the time.  

Raphael told the judge Shilo already had his chance to defend himself in court and shouldn’t be allowed to relitigate what happened in 2015. He wants his client to collect on all of his debt.

“That lawsuit carried on for six years,” Raphael told the judge. “There was substantial participation by Mr. Sanders. He filed four amended answers, multiple counterclaims. He was very involved.”

‘He quit the game’

After not showing up for trial, Shilo Sanders also did not appeal the Texas judgment.

“He had the chance for six years to raise it, to come to trial and do it,” Raphael told the judge. “The game started. He got on the field. He left before the whistle blew. He quit the game.”

The judge poked fun at the football analogy.

“It’s not appropriate to bring in a football (analogy) in this particular instance,” the judge said.

The judge could rule on that issue in coming weeks. If the judge sides with Darjean, Shilo would be on the hook to pay back the debt, including from future earnings. If the judge sides with Shilo, the issue could go to trial about whether he acted willfully and maliciously in 2015.

Shilo Sanders, a starting safety for Colorado, was not required to attend the hearing last week and did not. His team is 7-2 this season and plays Utah Saturday in Boulder.

Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email: bschrotenb@usatoday.com