DENVER – A former school security guard testified here Wednesday, Sept. 2, that he started peeing down his leg and felt dizzy and off-balance after former Colorado football player Shilo Sanders hit him “super, super hard” with a roundhouse left elbow to the neck area in 2015 when he tried to confiscate Sanders’ phone at Deion Sanders’ request.
The security guard, John Darjean, testified for more than two hours Wednesday in the ongoing bankruptcy trial of Shilo Sanders, who is trying to free himself from an $11.89 million judgment he owes Darjean over this same incident at his school in Dallas on Sept. 17, 2015.
Darjean, 50, also testified about the conversations he had by phone that day with Shilo Sanders’ father Deion, the Colorado football coach.
But before and during his testimony, Darjean took several breaks to deal with ongoing back pain that he said stems from the injuries he received that day from Shilo Sanders, including incontinence. At one point before he testified, Darjean even went to the back of the courtroom to lay face-down on the carpeted floor for relief.
“I started urinating on myself,” Darjean testified about the aftermath of the incident in 2015. “I had a lot of pee going doing my leg and I was like, `Why am I peeing on myself?”
Darjean testified Shilo Sanders, then 15 years old, hit him three times — first with the elbow, then two punches to the face before he got up, felt lightheaded and eventually got taken to the hospital in an ambulance.
This was Day 3 of Sanders’ bankruptcy trial, where Shilo Sanders also testified again and doubled down on his assertion that Darjean attacked him, not the other way around, contradicting several other witnesses and the findings of a Texas state judge in 2022.
“I did nothing to Mr. Darjean,” Shilo Sanders testified Wednesday.
Shilo Sanders testifies about photos in the case
Under questioning from Darjean’s attorney Ori Raphael, Sanders, 26, said he couldn’t remember if he filed a police report to accuse Darjean of assault or if he went to a doctor to get treatment after he said Darjean choked him, caused him to black out and started to tear the skin off his arm when he grabbed it in an effort to retrieve Sanders’ phone.
He testified he saw a nurse afterward.
“Did she take photos of you?” Raphael asked him.
“As I recall, I think so,” Sanders responded.
“You don’t have those photos, is that right?” Raphael asked him.
“I don’t have any photos (from the nurse),” Sanders responded.
Sanders did testify about other photos he said he personally took of his injuries from Darjean that day after the incident — photos that show some marks on his upper arm and lower neck but don’t show his skin tearing off, as he testified on Sept. 1. Raphael questioned when the photos were taken exactly and whether another injury might have caused the marks.
What is happening in Shilo Sanders’ bankruptcy trial?
Almost everything in this trial has been about what different people saw, did and heard at Shilo Sanders’ school in Dallas on Sept. 17, 2015. That’s when Darjean said Sanders assaulted him and permanently injured him when he tried to confiscate his phone pursuant to school policy.
Darjean sued Sanders over it in 2016, leading to a $11.89 million default judgment against Sanders after Sanders didn’t show up at the trial in 2022. The judge at that trial in Texas wrote in her final judgment that Shilo Sanders “did in fact cause physical harm and injuries to John Darjean by assaulting him” that day.
Then when Darjean moved to collect on that judgment in 2023, Sanders filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in an effort to free himself of that debt and get a “fresh start.”
This trial is about whether he will be allowed to do that or if he will remain on the hook to pay it. According to bankruptcy law, debtors are not allowed to discharge debt if the debt stems from a “willful and malicious injury.”
Darjean’s attorney has argued Sanders should be denied a discharge because the debt does stem from a willful and malicious injury. That’s what he’s trying to prove at trial so Darjean can collect on the debt. In his defense, Sanders says he didn’t strike Darjean at all and instead was the victim of Darjean’s aggression.
The judge will decide after trial based on a preponderance of the evidence.
Darjean testifies about his conversations with Deion Sanders
Darjean testified Wednesday about being summoned to get Shilo Sanders out of class at school because Sanders was suspected of playing dice against school policy.
Darjean said Shilo Sanders also was violating school policy by having a phone out during school hours. Darjean eventually confiscated the dice but not the phone, though he tried, especially after he said Deion Sanders asked him by phone to retrieve it because he didn’t want him to talking to his mother, Pilar.
This request dramatically escalated Sanders’ agitation that day, Darjean testified. According to Darjean, Shilo Sanders said, “I hate my daddy” and didn’t want to give up his phone while he spoke with his mother.
Deion and Pilar Sanders divorced in 2013.
Deion Sanders served as John Darjean's boss
In addition to working as a security guard, Darjean was a baseball coach at the school reporting to Deion Sanders, the athletic director. That made Deion Sanders his boss.
According to Darjean, Deion Sanders told him, “Do me a huge favor. I’m your brother in Christ.”
Darjean testified Wednesday Deion Sanders then asked him, “In Jesus’ name, please go get the phone.”
While he approached Shilo Sanders in the school gym to get the phone, Darjean said Sanders warned him that “I’m gonna swing on you” and “bust you in your (expletive) head.”
Then Darjean testified Shilo Sanders struck him with his elbow and fist after he grabbed his arm to try to guide him back to Darjean’s office.
Darjean is expected to take the witness stand again Thursday in a trial that could run through Friday. Deion Sanders might testify Friday afternoon, but only if certain topics come up before then, as the judge previously ruled.
Deion Sanders is in Atlanta this week preparing for Colorado's season opener Thursday, Sept. 3 against Georgia Tech.
Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email: bschrotenb@usatoday.com
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Security guard gives graphic testimony in Shilo Sanders bankruptcy trial
