Deion Sanders has spent the last week answering questions about football, Colorado’s season opener, and expectations for the Buffaloes. At the same time, a separate story has continued to follow him. The Colorado head coach has been subpoenaed to testify in his son Shilo Sanders’ upcoming bankruptcy trial.
Watch What’s Trending Now!
The proceedings are set to get underway in Denver on Aug. 31, with Colorado’s opener against Georgia Tech coming only a few days later. However, Sanders wants to focus on Colorado and is fighting the subpoena in court. But, according to a former CU lineman, Sanders might not have any recourse here.
“This is the federal government dog that if they want to subpoena you, you can’t just be unavailable,” former CU lineman Matt McChesney said on his August 24 podcast. “He can try and play Peekaboo with the cops. I guess it’s not gonna work. They’re gonna subpoena him, and he’s gonna have to show up. Or he’s going to be in contempt of court, and they’re gonna arrest him.”
The matter drew more attention on Aug. 11, when a Boulder County sheriff’s deputy went to a Colorado practice to serve Sanders with the legal documents. According to the sheriff’s office, Sanders was “unavailable” at the time. Officials later clarified that his legal counsel became involved and the paperwork was transferred for service elsewhere.
For one thing, court filings indicate Sanders’ attorney later accepted service of the subpoena on his behalf, meaning the focus has shifted from whether he can be served to whether he can avoid testifying altogether. Sanders’ legal team has since asked the court to quash the subpoena, saying his testimony during Colorado’s season-opening week would put an unnecessary strain on him. His lawyers pointed to the Buffaloes’ Sept. 3 game against Georgia Tech and the work Sanders has to handle with his team.
The subpoena is tied to Shilo Sanders’ bankruptcy case. He is trying to get rid of an $11.89 million judgment owed to former school security guard John Darjean, who sued him over a 2015 altercation. Darjean won the judgment after Shilo failed to appear at the 2022 trial. The bankruptcy case will now determine whether that debt can be wiped away.
Now the bankruptcy court has to settle a narrower question: was Sanders acting in self-defense, as he has maintained, or did the incident amount to a “willful and malicious injury”? If the latter is proven, the debt would not be wiped away through bankruptcy. That is where Deion Sanders enters the picture.
Although he was not physically involved in the incident, attorneys in the case believe he may have relevant testimony because of his interactions with Darjean around the time of the altercation. Sanders himself has shown little concern publicly. When asked this week whether the subpoena situation was becoming a distraction, he brushed off the suggestion. McChesney, though, sees it differently.
“I don’t think he has any like political sway in Colorado,” McChesney said. “You’re not going to be able to get out of this s–t.”