Shilo Sanders, the former Colorado football player and son of coaching legend Deion Sanders, is making some serious moves to keep his bankruptcy trial under wraps. He’s pushing hard to seal the written transcript and all exhibits from public view, all while trying to wipe out a staggering $11 million in debt.
The Battle for Transparency Heats Up
This isn’t just a quiet filing; it’s turned into a full-blown fight for public transparency. USA TODAY’s legal team jumped into the fray on July 22, filing a motion to intervene and demand greater openness. Why? Because a bunch of developments in this high-profile case have already gone down in secret, including a pretrial court hearing back on July 14. Sanders’ attorney, Victor Vital, fired back with his response on July 31, but guess what? That too was filed under seal, keeping its contents away from prying eyes.
USA TODAY isn’t having any of it. Their August 3 filing calls out Sanders’ proposal: while he says he doesn’t mind the actual trial proceedings being public, his plan would “bury the fact that his proposed order would seal the complete trial transcript and any exhibits submitted as evidence at trial.” USA TODAY’s attorneys, Zansberg Beylkin LLC, are blunt: “There is absolutely no basis to seal, prospectively, any trial transcript or any evidence in this run of the mill bankruptcy case, nor is there any basis to treat Defendant (Shilo Sanders) as somehow special because of his notoriety.” They argue his fame should actually counsel the opposite, not grant him special privilege. Sanders’ camp, meanwhile, claims the case has info from when he was a minor at age 15, which justifies the secrecy.
The $11 Million Backstory Nobody Wants Public
So, where did this massive $11 million debt come from? It’s almost all owed to John Darjean, a former security guard at Sanders’ school in Dallas. The whole thing started with an incident between Darjean and Sanders back in September 2015, when Sanders was just 15 years old. Darjean filed a civil lawsuit in 2016, alleging Sanders assaulted him and caused permanent injuries when he tried to take his phone. Sanders’ parents were initially part of the suit but were dismissed by early 2019, leaving Shilo, at age 19, as the lone defendant.
Then things really took a turn. Sanders dropped his attorneys in 2020 and, get this, didn’t even show up for the trial in 2022. The result? A judge in Texas slapped him with an $11.89 million default judgment after only hearing Darjean’s evidence, with zero rebuttal from Sanders. That’s a brutal way to lose a case! Sanders himself filed for bankruptcy in 2023, hoping to erase that debt.
Right now, all these arguments are sitting on Judge Michael Romero’s desk for consideration. There’s no clear timeline for his decision, but you can bet everyone’s watching closely. This isn’t just about one guy’s debt; it’s about transparency versus privacy, and whether fame gives you a pass on public record. Big stakes, for sure, and we’ll be keeping an eye on how Judge Romero rules on this one.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by Yahoo Sports.
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