Deion Sanders calls for investigation into son’s bankruptcy case: Here’s what he found

In response to questions last month about his son’s bankruptcy case, Colorado football coach Deion Sanders made a request to a USA TODAY Sports reporter who asked about it.

“I want you to do this for me,” the Pro Football Hall of Famer said. “I want you to do your homework and do a full investigation and then write. I mean a full investigation of what happened.

USA TODAY Sports has done and previously published another report on this and the events leading up to it in 2015. But in response to Sanders’ request, USA TODAY Sports reviewed the records again and asked for more information from the officials who investigated the case. his son, Shiloh, who filed for bankruptcy last October with more than $11 million in debt.

As a result, USA TODAY Sports found that at least five agencies or institutions that had access to witnesses and evidence in the 2015 case made conclusions about this – the Dallas police, the Shiloh school, the insurance company, the Texas child protection service and the civil court in Dallas. .

What do these agencies and institutions conclude?

No one likes Shilo Sanders, now a good safety for his dad in Colorado.

Four of the five official inquiries favored John Darjean, a school security guard who claimed to have suffered permanent and severe spinal and nerve injuries after Shilo allegedly assaulted him in 2015, when Shilo was a 15-year-old ninth-grader at FOCUS Academies in Dallas. .

The rest of the five investigators initially sided with Shilo but later received information that forced them to reverse their conclusions and instead decided that his guilt was “indefinable.”

Opinions: Confrontation. Defensive. Unnecessary. Deion Sanders’ actions wear thin.

MORE: Shilo Sanders bankruptcy case reaches ‘impasse’ over NIL information for CU star

USA TODAY Sports also sought further clarification from Shilo’s attorney in Texas but did not receive a response.

Below is a summary of how each of the five questions ended up after Darjean said Shilo threw a roundhouse elbow to the upper body when Darjean tried to confiscate the phone at school. Darjean sued Shilo in civil court to recover for his injuries and won a default judgment of $11.89 million in 2022 – a huge debt to Shilo that caused him to go bankrupt in hopes of eliminating it.

The bankruptcy case is still pending and may still depend on what happened in 2015. Deion Sanders said Darjean’s claims were false and described it as a money grab. Shilo Sanders said she acted in self-defense after Darjean attacked her. Shilo’s lawyer has also asked if Darjean’s injuries were present.

What Dallas police have to say about the Shilo Sanders case

Dallas police provided that information when asked by USA TODAY Sports.

“On September 17, 2015 at approximately 11:55 a.m., Dallas police responded to a call for service in the 2500 block of W Ledbetter Drive. A preliminary investigation determined that a security officer and a juvenile were in an argument when the juvenile assaulted the security officer. Dallas Fire Rescue responded and transported the security officer to a local hospital for further medical treatment.

Dallas police said the incident was referred to a grand jury, but there is no public record of criminal charges or indictments.

Court records show that a day after the incident, Shilo Sanders was involved in a separate incident at school with another student and was taken to a juvenile detention center in Dallas that day. Court records also show Darjean underwent spinal surgery days after the incident.

What the school found

Darjean was initially suspended pending the outcome of an internal investigation. Five days after the incident, the school’s CEO and founder, Leroy McClure, wrote a letter to Darjean saying that the suspension had been lifted and that Darjean had been reinstated effectively.

“Video evidence supports your statement and the statement of the nearest employee in the area,” the school found in the letter. “You tried to take the student’s cell phone from him. You were hit in the upper chest area by the student’s elbow. You then tried to hold the student against the wall. The student backed away from you, moving you from the wall. You tried to hold the student twice against the wall and then moved students went to the floor to stop him At that time another employee entered the area to help.

It is unclear what video evidence was used to clear Darjean. In 2016, TMZ published some security video evidence that only showed part of the incident. But Darjean said there is other video evidence that backs him up – a video that was deleted by a computer technician around the same time Deion Sanders approached the technician to get it.

USA TODAY Sports recently contacted McClure, the school’s CEO, and asked what the video showed.

“I have to refer you back to the letter I signed in 2015,” McClure said. “Yes, I did carefully look at different angles before signing the letter. I have nothing to add or remove from the letter. The signed letter stands on its own. I don’t know where the video is.

Have Texas child protective services found

The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services was involved in this case to determine whether Shilo Sanders had been abused as a minor at school.

On October 30, 2015, the agency first found that there was “reason to believe” that abuse or neglect had occurred against Shilo in this case based on a preponderance of the evidence. In February, Shilo Sanders’ attorney in bankruptcy court even used this preliminary ruling to try to convince a judge to dismiss Darjean’s complaint against Sanders there.

But that initial decision was not the final word in the case and was based on false information from two school officials who said Darjean was fired because of the incident, according to court records. McClure, the school’s CEO, testified in a deposition before the court that Darjean was never terminated and that this false information came from two officials who had a personal conflict with Darjean and had no authority to make the decision. McClure also testified that he held the two school officials “responsible,” and both were fired from the school in 2016.

Records obtained by USA TODAY Sports show that the agency’s initial decision was overturned after two additional witness statements were obtained in support of Darjean.

As a result, the disposition of the case was changed to “Undetermined.”

Another strange area is that Deion Sanders initially told the body’s investigator, Jordan Ham, that he did not suspect Darjean of using excessive force to restrain Shilo and that he thought Darjean handled the situation appropriately, according to court records. He said 12 days after the incident in the presence of his lawyer, according to Ham. But Deion Sanders later denied it, saying he didn’t witness the incident and didn’t know.

Do workers comp insurance found

Employees can file a workers’ compensation insurance claim when injured on the job to help pay medical bills and a portion of lost wages. But these claims are not automatically approved for benefits. Insurance companies can investigate to make sure the claim is valid and can also deny the claim if they find the injury was caused by an employee’s attempt to “unlawfully harm another person,” according to Texas law.

That’s not what the insurance company found in Darjean’s case. An independent doctor reviewed his medical records and determined that he suffered compensable injuries. The company also obtained records from the school about the incident.

“As a result of filing a workers’ compensation claim, Utica National Insurance Company paid medical benefits to or on behalf of John Darjean and compensation benefits,” said a sworn affidavit from the company’s custodian of records from July 2021.

The affidavit said the company had paid him $112,000 in medical benefits during that time, plus $99,000 in compensation benefits.

The doctor noted a pre-existing condition with Darjean, who had undergone another operation before the incident, in 2014. But he said the injuries from the incident in 2015 made his physical condition worse.

“The accident caused cervical myelopathy and cervical cord compression and urinary incontinence due to spinal stenosis,” the doctor wrote to the Texas Department of Insurance in 2016. “In other words, there is what would be called an aggravation of a pre-existing condition.”

What the civil court found

Darjean initially sued Shilo and both of his parents in 2016, but in early 2019, both parents were dropped from the lawsuit, and Shilo became the sole defendant in 2019, when he was a freshman in college at South Carolina. By that time, Shilo had been defending himself in lawsuits for years. He has even filed counterclaims and testified in pretrial depositions.

But then he chose to let go of the lawyer in April 2020 without hiring a new one. Shilo is “unwilling or unable to continue to fund” his defense, according to his lawyer.

Without an attorney to represent him, hearing notices were sent to his email address and his old home address in South Carolina, although he left there after the 2020 season to transfer to Jackson State.

Then, when the case finally went to trial in March 2022, he did not appear to defend himself, resulting in a default judgment of $11.89 million against him.

The court issues findings of fact and conclusions of law after hearing the evidence in the case.

“On September 17, 2015, Shilo Sanders actually caused physical harm and injury to John Darjean by assaulting him,” the court said. “The court finds that the conduct of Shilo Sanders was the proximate cause of the injuries/damages to John Darjean. The court further finds that the conduct of Shilo Sander was a significant factor in causing the physical and mental injuries sustained by John Darjean, without which these injuries and damages would not have occurred.

The question now is whether the bankruptcy court will take Shilo’s side after all other agencies and institutions have failed to do so. If he is successful this time, the court may write off the court debt and allow him to start over with little damage to his bank account.

A University of Colorado spokeswoman said Deion and Shilo Sanders were “unable to comment” on the pending bankruptcy case. The Buffaloes open their second season at Sanders on Aug. 29 vs. North Dakota State.

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Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email: bschrotenb@usatoday.com

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Deion Sanders gets ‘homework’ on son’s bankruptcy: What he found