Colorado football coach Deion Sanders is being called to testify as a witness in his son Shilo Sanders’ bankruptcy trail during the same week as his Buffaloes open the season at Georgia Tech on Sept. 3, according to a pretrial conference in the case Aug. 14.
Shilo filed for bankruptcy in 2023 with more than $11 million in debt. The bankruptcy trial in Denver is scheduled to begin Aug. 31 and last approximately five days through Sept. 4.
The judge in the case, Michael E. Romero, brought it up at the pretrial conference.
“I noticed Deion was subpoenaed,” Judge Romero said.
The judge noted the conflict with Colorado’s season opener and said he wouldn’t be surprised if Deion Sanders tried to fight the subpoena to testify at the trial.
“I’m also concerned there’s a game: CU’s first game is that same week,” Judge Romero said on the Zoom conference, which also was attended by USA TODAY Sports. “So I can see that coming. I am not a CU alum or I have no ties to CU. So I don’t care. But I’m just recognizing that is a potential issue.”
It’s not clear if Deion Sanders was officially served the subpoena to testify yet at the request of the plaintiff’s attorney in the case. There’s no record of it on the court docket. It’s also not clear if he will try to quash it or how he will resolve the scheduling conflict.
Shilo Sanders, who attended Colorado as a football player, owes nearly all of his debt to a former security guard at his school in Dallas, John Darjean.
The debt stems from a dispute between Darjean and Shilo Sanders in 2015, when Sanders was 15 years old. Darjean claimed Sanders assaulted him at school and caused him permanent injuries then when he tried to confiscate his phone at Deion Sanders’ direction. Darjean then sued and won a $11.89 million default judgment against Shilo Sanders in Texas in 2022.
The University of Colorado has yet to release a statement.
