High-Earning College Athlete Dodging $12M Settlement

(StraightNews.org) – Colorado head coach Deion Sanders’ son has been accused of hiding assets to avoid paying a $12 million court settlement. Shilo Sanders declared bankruptcy after a court ordered him to compensate high school security guard John Darjean, who suffered significant injuries when Sanders attacked him at the Triple-A Academy school in Dallas, Texas, in 2015.

Darjean’s lawyer, however, has questioned the bankruptcy, saying Sanders boasts online about having a lavish lifestyle and has signed lucrative contracts with companies that were not included in the bankruptcy filing.

Shilo Sanders, a defensive back on his father’s Colorado team, claims he is in debt to the tune of over $11 million and earned just over $190,000 in 2023.

The case stems from a lawsuit filed in 2016 in which Darjean claimed he suffered “sustained severe and permanent injuries,” including spinal damage, neurological injury, and irreversible incontinence when attacked by Sanders the previous year. Court filings reveal that the attack happened when security guard Darjean attempted to confiscate Sanders’ cell phone at the Dallas high school. The confiscation was requested by Deion Sanders but provoked fury from his son, who smashed his elbow into the guard’s chest, knocking him over.

Shilo Sanders did not attend court when the case was finally heard in 2022. Nevertheless, the court ruled he had committed assault and battery and had caused the injuries to Mr. Darjean, who was awarded $11.89 million.

Attorneys for Mr. Sanders said he was unaware of the court case and had been afforded no opportunity to offer a defense. They also claimed that Darjean’s injuries were pre-existing, and he had sustained a number of these during an earlier baseball career.

Mr. Darjean’s attorneys are demanding payment for their client and accuse Sanders of directing funds from company contracts to a firm he owns, Big 21 LLC. Sanders’s lawyers say the agreements were negotiated by Big 21, so the company legitimately claimed ownership of the related payments.