Shiloh Sanders and his attorneys have been fighting two different court battles in recent months, both high-stakes for the University of Colorado football star:
∎ In Colorado bankruptcy court, they are trying to free him from $11 million in debt he owes for allegedly assaulting and injuring a man when he was 15 in Dallas in 2015.
∎ In Texas state court, they are also asking that many old documents related to his youth be shielded from public view, despite the fact that those records may be relevant to his now-public bankruptcy case as adult at the age of 24.
“There is no basis or justification under Texas state law or the Bankruptcy Code or the Bankruptcy Rules to unseal such materials relating to the time when Sanders was a minor merely because (by reason of) reaching the age of majority Sanders,” Sanders’ lawyers wrote in a court filing. filing in June.
His lawyers have even called for a hearing in Dallas next week to argue why the court should seal hundreds of pages of court records there related to his days as a minor.
In the bigger picture, it highlights the strange circumstances at play with how Sanders, the son of Colorado head coach Deion Sanders, has fallen into bankruptcy as a young man because of what he allegedly did while in ninth grade at a high school in Dallas. Legal experts describe it as an oddity in a justice system that generally aims to prevent the mistakes of youth from ruining someone’s life.
But in this case, the law allowed a then-40-year-old man to sue a then-16-year-old boy (Sanders) in civil court in 2016 over what Sanders allegedly did to the man a year earlier, when Sanders was 15 years old.
The law also allowed the same civil court to hold Sanders responsible for what he allegedly did at age 15 — issuing an $11.89 million judgment against him that left him bankrupt last year at age 23.
Here’s why and what sets the case apart.
Why did the case come to this point if Shiloh Sanders was a minor?
The case stems from an incident in September 2015 when Shilo Sanders allegedly assaulted and permanently injured a security guard, John Darjean, who was trying to confiscate his phone at the school. Darjean sued Sanders and his parents in 2016, seeking damages for his injuries. But Sanders’ parents were ultimately dismissed from the case. Shiloh was not. By the time he entered his freshman year of college at South Carolina in 2019, he was the only remaining defendant in the case at age 19.
Then, when the case finally went to trial in Dallas in 2022, Shilo did not show up to defend himself in court after dropping his lawyers for the case in 2020.
As a result, the court entered an unused judgment against him for $11.89 million – a debt that Darjean is still trying to collect.
In Darjean’s view, Shiloh simply owes him what he did to her under laws designed to address civil wrongs – or torts – in civil court. It is quite different from criminal court, where children are generally afforded more privacy and leniency than adults.
“Juveniles are as responsible as adults,” said Meredith Duncan, a law professor at the University of Houston. “This is true in most states. The plaintiff in this case (Darjean) is suing Shilo for committing a tort (a civil wrong) and seeking to hold him civilly liable (for monetary damages). Unlike the criminal justice system, from the civil side being a minor at the time of committing a crime does not protect one from liability. Usually, the practical difficulty in suing a minor for damages is that most minors don’t have money.”
The default judgment prompted Shilo Sanders to file for bankruptcy last October. His goal in bankruptcy court is to discharge that debt so he can “make a fresh start, free from the crushing burden of his debts,” according to his attorneys.
Sanders has claimed that Darjean was the aggressor, not him, although it may be too late to discuss that since he lost the trial on that.
How money sets this case apart
Deion Sanders has previously portrayed the case as a money grab from Darjean. However, Darjean disputes any notion that he is pursuing Shilo Sanders simply because of the wealth of Deion Sanders, a Football Hall of Famer. Darjean noted how multiple investigations evaluated the evidence in the case and ended up in his favor, including by the police, workers’ compensation authorities and civil courts in Dallas.
Court records filed by Darjean’s attorneys also noted that Shilo Sanders was admitted to a Dallas County Department of Juvenile Department facility a day later after another incident at the school.
“I was going to go after anybody that was attacking me,” Darjean told USA TODAY Sports in a recent interview. “I don’t care who it was.”
It just might have been harder for him to find lawyers to fight for his rights in this case if Shilo Sanders didn’t come from a family of wealth. Darjean said his attorneys are working on the case on a contingency basis — which generally means they are paid a portion of any settlement or debt recovery.
These attorneys are fighting Shiloh’s efforts to discharge his debt in bankruptcy court because they want to collect it. If not discharged by the bankruptcy court, they may continue to pursue debt collection efforts against him in the future, including any future earnings from the NFL.
This is a way that the case is rare. It is often not worth pursuing a civil case against minors because they often do not have the means to pay any judgment that may result from it.
“This case is unique in many respects, including the fact that the defendant’s family has far more resources than the average person,” said Jonathan Todres, a Georgia State law professor and expert on children’s rights.
Meanwhile, Darjean has said that he will not stop fighting until he gets what he is owed. His lawyers have also suggested in court filings that Shilo is hiding assets to avoid selling them to pay off his debt — allegations Shilo’s lawyers have denied. Attorneys in the case declined to comment or did not respond to requests for comment.
What has happened to Shiloh Sanders so far?
Shilo Sanders is a Colorado graduate and was the head coach on the team in 2023. But he is entering his final college season in Boulder with legal and financial problems unusual for college football players.
In March, he underwent a property audit to account for his wealth, according to court records filed in the case. He provided the bankruptcy trustee overseeing the case with bank statements, information on his business operations and documents related to his vehicles.
“The Trustee is continuing to review the documents to determine if any additional documents are needed for the Trustee’s administration of the estate,” his attorney said in a June 27 court filing.
His non-exempt assets can be sold to pay creditors at least part of what he owes them, but his biggest creditor – Darjean – has suspected he is hiding assets and wants to prevent the court’s decision to be dismissed on the basis that it resulted from a “willful and malicious” injury.
To represent his interests, Shilo Sanders has lawyers working for him in Colorado, Washington DC and Texas, where they are asking the court to seal records related to his youth.
Why was Shilo Sanders not protected from prosecution as a juvenile?
It stems from differences in the civil courts and the criminal justice system, where children are treated differently as minors.
“The idea behind it was that children are different from adults and they deserve the opportunity to learn from their mistakes and build on their development, rather than being penalized endlessly for missteps,” said Todres of State of Georgia.
In contrast, in civil court, the child’s freedom is not at risk as it might be in the criminal justice system. Instead, it is essentially about determining the obligation to recover monetary damages. In Darjean’s view, the age of his alleged assailant should not matter if he suffered serious injuries and proved who was responsible for them in court.
He sought recovery for those injuries, and the court found that Shilo Sanders “actually caused physical harm and injury to John Darjean by assaulting him,” according to “findings of fact” signed by the judge in 2022.
The court’s judgment against Sanders included $3 million for Darjean’s future physical injury and $2 million for future medical care. Attorneys for Shilo Sanders said in court records that he does not have the money to pay the judgment and should be allowed to go free. It will soon be up to the court to decide whether he should stay on the hook for this.
Overall, the larger civil legal system beyond this case has a “tough balancing act to do,” Todres said. “We want to ensure that injured individuals receive compensation, where they are entitled, so that they can fully recover, but we do not want to unfairly penalize a child and saddle them with a debt of forever because of a decision made as a child. Part of the challenge is that our legal system’s primary tool for injury is monetary compensation.”
Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email: bschrotenb@usatoday.com
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