Creditor in Shilo Sanders' bankruptcy case seeks payback, speaks out
The man owed $12 million by Deion Sanders' son Shilo spoke about the case and Coach Prime's role in it.
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The former security guard who is owed nearly $12 million from Shilo Sanders told USA TODAY Sports that heâll never stop pursuing that debt even after the Colorado football standout filed for bankruptcy to get out of it last October.
John Darjean, 48, discussed the case in a recent interview with USA TODAY Sports, including Deion Sandersâ role in it as Shiloâs father.
âIâm not gonna stop until the truth gets out and until I win my $12 million,â Darjean said.
It all stems from an incident in 2015, when Shilo Sanders allegedly assaulted Darjean after Darjean tried to confiscate his phone at school when Sanders was 15 years old. Darjean said Shilo Sanders hit him so hard near his neck with his elbow that it left him with permanent injuries, nerve damage and incontinence.
Darjean then sued him in civil court in Dallas and won a default judgment against him of $11.89 million â a debt that Sanders is trying to get discharged in bankruptcy court so he can get a âfresh start in life, free from the oppressive burden of his debts,â according to Sandersâ attorneys.
Now Darjean is challenging the potential discharge because he wants to collect on it.
âTheyâre trying to make it go away, Deion and Shilo, but Iâm going to keep fighting and I wonât ever stop fighting,â Darjean said.
What did John Darjean say about the case?
Darjean noted how Deion Sanders, Shiloâs father and coach at Colorado, initially corroborated Darjeanâs version of the incident. But Darjean decided to file his lawsuit four days after Deion Sanders publicly reversed his position and told TMZ in 2016 that Darjean was a âgrifterâ and that his allegations about Shilo were false.
Darjean also said there were several official probes into the incident that ended with favorable conclusions for him, including by the police, workers compensation authorities and the civil court in Dallas. Now heâs hoping a bankruptcy judge takes his side, too.
By law, the debt wonât get discharged if the judge determines it stems from a âwillful and maliciousâ injury, as Darjeanâs attorneys say has already been decided by the court in Texas. In response, Shilo Sandersâ attorneys have suggested Darjeanâs injuries came from pre-existing health problems, not his incident with Shilo, now 24 years old.
âThey donât want the truth to come out, and theyâre trying to spin it that I was already injured and he didnât really do this,â Darjean said. âItâs a lie. Not one person came and testified on Deion Sandersâ and Shilo Sandersâ behalf. Not one person. And so now theyâre trying to get it thrown out in bankruptcy, and I donât believe thatâs gonna happen.â
What is Deion Sanders' role in this case?
Darjean described three main areas that involve the Pro Football Hall of Famer â an investigative report, the handling of security video footage from the incident and the lead-up to the incident itself.
The investigative report
Deion Sanders didnât witness the incident, but 12 days afterward he agreed to an interview about it with an investigator with the Texas state child protective services agency (CPS), according to court records. The investigator, Jordan Ham, wanted to find out what he knew about what happened. Deion Sanders was accompanied by an attorney to the interview and told the investigator that Darjean handled the situation appropriately after Shilo had been âdisruptiveâ at school, according to Hamâs report.
âMr. Sanders stated that Shilo reportedly struck Mr. Darjean in the chest; and began resisting away from Mr. Darjean,â stated the report obtained by USA TODAY Sports. âMr. Sanders stated that Mr. Darjean was required to restrain Shilo.â
Ham confirmed this account again under oath in a pretrial deposition in 2017, according to court records. But Deion Sanders since has taken the opposite position â that Darjean was the aggressor using excessive force against his son.
âDeion was adamant I didnât do anything wrong,â Darjean said. âBut then he changed his story.â
Deion Sanders said in a subsequent pretrial deposition he couldnât have known what really happened since he wasnât there and indicated he initially had obtained information from other sources.
Then the stakes got higher with liability issues for him and his son.
The attorney who Ham said accompanied Sanders to the interview with him didnât return a message seeking comment. The University of Colorado said Deion and Shilo Sanders declined comment on the pending case.
The security video footage
Deion Sanders said in a pretrial deposition that he arranged to obtain security video footage of the incident through a backchannel contact after requesting it from school authorities but not getting it. Sanders said then he couldn't remember the contact's name, but he was identified by Darjean and another witness as a school computer technician, according to court records.
âSomeone slipped and gave it â not slipped, but they manipulated and gave us the video,â Sanders said in a pretrial deposition from 2017-18 previously posted on YouTube. âThatâs how we got our hands on the video. Itâs not like the school provided the video for us.â
Darjean said this is evidence that Deion Sanders âstoleâ video footage that might have supported Darjeanâs version of events. In 2016, TMZ published video footage of the incident that Sanders encouraged viewers to watch. But that footage didnât show the whole incident, only portions that were inconclusive or that have been used to support Sandersâ position that Darjean was the aggressor.
Other footage from security cameras involving Shilo Sanders was âmistakenly erasedâ by this computer technician while he attempted to save it to a flash drive, according to a statement Darjean said the technician provided him. It's not clear what that footage showed. The technician couldn't be reached for comment.
Shilo Sandersâ attorney also didnât return a message seeking comment.
The incident itself
Darjean said Deion Sanders called and asked him to get Shiloâs phone that day so he couldnât talk to his ex-wife, Shiloâs mother. Shilo previously had been in the middle of an acrimonious custody battle and âsnapped" when Darjean tried to take his phone, which Shilo was forbidden to use during school hours, Darjean said.
âI did this because it was my job, and I was within my rights to do it,â Darjean said.
What about the default judgment against Shilo Sanders?
Darjean filed suit in 2016 and named three defendants: Shilo Sanders, Deion Sanders and Pilar Sanders, Shiloâs mother. Darjean accused the parents of being negligent with their parenting of Shilo, but both parents were dismissed from the case by early 2019. That left Shilo as the sole remaining defendant when he left for college at South Carolina in 2019 at age 19.
When the case finally went to trial in March 2022, Shilo Sanders didnât show up for it, leading the court to enter the default judgment against him of $11.89 million. Darjean presented evidence at trial, but Shilo wasnât there to dispute it after failing to retain an attorney in the case since 2020. Court records show trial notices were sent to his email account and his old address at South Carolina more than a year after he transferred to Jackson State in Mississippi.
Darjean said the bailiff at the trial even went out into the hallway of the court to call for him: âShilo Sanders!? Shilo Sanders!?"
There was no response.
But Darjean noted Shilo had used legal counsel to defend himself from the lawsuit for years and also testified in a pretrial deposition in 2018.
âItâs not like this is a new case and he never had a lawyer,â Darjean said.
The court made findings of fact and conclusions of law after the trial.
âOn September 17, 2015, Shilo Sanders did in fact cause physical harm and injuries to John Darjean by assaulting him,â said the findings signed by the judge.
Did Darjean have pre-existing injuries?
Darjean is a former pro baseball outfielder who was drafted in the sixth round by the New York Yankees in the 1997 amateur draft. Now living in the Dominican Republic, he never made it to the major leagues but does remember running into an outfield wall early in his pro career while chasing a fly ball. He said that led to minor neck problems and might have led him to get spinal surgery in 2014, long before the incident.
He said Shiloâs âroundhouseâ elbow severely aggravated that issue, turning a single-level spinal fusion into a much more serious injury that required a five-level fusion. He was taken to the hospital after the incident and went into surgery a few days later. He said he still battles partial paralysis and incontinence that started soon after the incident.
âHe hit me so hard they had to remove the one-level neck fusion and change it out with a five-level neck fusion,â Darjean said. âThatâs what theyâre trying to pretend, that I was already messed up. I wasnât taking any medication. I wasnât doing any of that. I didnât have any issues. ⊠After my surgery (in 2014), I was fine.â
Is he motivated by Deion Sanders' wealth?
Deion Sanders has portrayed this as a money grab. Shilo Sanders said in pretrial testimony that Darjean was the aggressor. Some witnesses said it looked like Darjean was choking Shilo, but Darjean said Shilo was faking it.
The judgment that is owed to Darjean from Shilo includes $2 million for future lost earning capacity and $3 million for future physical impairment.
âI would go after anyone that assaulted me; I donât care who it was,â Darjean said.
He said he still has to undergo another surgery, still has major nerve damage and has received $1,400 monthly in disability payments.
âSo it doesnât matter if itâs Deion Sanders or not,â he said. âI would sue anybody. Thatâs my answer.â
Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email: bschrotenb@usatoday.com