USA TODAY files motion to intervene in Shilo Sanders bankruptcy case

USA TODAY has filed a motion to intervene in the bankruptcy case of former Colorado football player Shilo Sanders after several developments in the case recently were conducted in secret, including a pretrial court hearing July 14.

The national news outlet filed the motion in Colorado bankruptcy court July 22 – a legal request that seeks to unseal certain records in the case and to object to any proposed closure of Sanders’ coming bankruptcy trial in that case Aug. 31.

Shilo Sanders, the 26-year-old son of Colorado coach Deion Sanders, filed for bankruptcy in 2023 in an effort to get out of more than $11 million in debt, almost all of which is owed to John Darjean, a former security guard at his school in Dallas.

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The debt stems from an incident at the school in 2015, when Shilo Sanders was 15. Sanders’ attorneys have filed numerous documents under seal on the basis that they are subject to protective orders guarding his privacy, including when he was a minor at the time of the incident.

‘The Court should not exclude the public’

In its motion to intervene in the case, USA TODAY has asked the court to order the release of a redacted transcript of the July 14 hearing, along with several motions that were adjudicated in that hearing over what evidence will be included at the trial. Those motions were filed under seal by Sanders’ attorney in May.

“Furthermore, the Court should not exclude the public from any portion of the trial herein unless and until the requisite findings have been made warranting the denial of the public’s presumptive right of attendance under the First Amendment,” said USA TODAY’s motion to intervene, filed by the firm Zansberg Beylkin LLC in Denver.

The filing noted that press coverage of judicial proceedings is “vital” because the press serves as “surrogates for the public,” by protecting the public’s right to understand the workings of the judicial system. It also notes that numerous details about the case have been publicly reported for years and that many court filings currently under seal in a Texas court previously were publicly available for years and were obtained by USA TODAY then.

What’s at stake in Shilo Sanders trial

Darjean sued Shilo Sanders and his parents in 2016, accusing Shilo Sanders of assaulting him and causing him permanent injuries when he tried to confiscate his phone at school in 2015. Shilo Sanders’ parents were dismissed from the case by early 2019, but when the case finally went to trial in 2022, Shilo Sanders didn’t show up for it. The judge in Texas then issued a $11.89 million default judgment against him after hearing Darjean’s evidence.

The issue now at trial in bankruptcy court is whether Shilo Sanders can get out of that debt. Darjean is fighting to get every dime he’s owed and has argued through his attorneys that Shilo Sanders shouldn’t be allowed to discharge the debt under bankruptcy law because it stems from a “willful and malicious injury.” Shilo Sanders says it was self-defense and wants the debt discharged.

The case has several elements in the public interest

Shilo Sanders' case has been newsworthy for several reasons beyond the legal arguments in the filing:

∎ Deion Sanders’ public position has been that Darjean is a “grifter” who is basically lying to rob the family of more than $11 million – a big claim from a public figure in a case with high stakes. Keeping the case behind closed doors doesn’t help the public learn whether that claim is true.

∎ More transparency and coverage also help ensure that any party isn’t getting special favors in a taxpayer-funded court because of their wealth and fame. Part of the tradeoff when debtors file for bankruptcy is that such records and proceedings are public, with some exceptions. This comes in exchange for debtors getting to potentially erase their debt and start over financially. More people might be tempted to discharge their debts in bankruptcy if they were allowed to do so in secret.

∎ Deion Sanders seeks and attracts publicity for himself and his family in just about every facet of his life, including his recovery from bladder cancer and battles with blood clots. USA TODAY Sports covered those stories too, as well as his other successes and innovations. USA TODAY covers both the good and the bad when covering public figures.

∎ In this case, Deion Sanders had a central role in this 11-year-old saga. He initially was sued by Darjean in the same lawsuit in 2016 before he was dismissed from it by early 2019. One key question persists about why the father let his son drop his attorneys in the case after that, in 2020, when Shilo Sanders was the sole remaining defendant in the case at age 20.

If Shilo Sanders did not drop his attorneys then, he most certainly would not have missed the trial in 2022 that ended up with a $11.89 million default judgment against him.

An attorney would have helped him avoid that worst-case scenario, including by possibly settling the case for a much smaller amount. But Shilo Sanders said he was “unwilling or unable to continue funding the defense of this case” in 2020, according to court records filed by his former attorneys.

Shilo Sanders didn’t hire new attorneys in the case until after Darjean attempted to collect on the $11.89 million judgment against him in 2023.

Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email: [email protected]

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: USA TODAY files motion to intervene in Shilo Sanders bankruptcy case