Security guard gives graphic testimony in Shilo Sanders bankruptcy trial

Day 3 of Shilo Sanders’ Bankruptcy Trial: A Security Guard Describes Urinating on Himself After a 2015 School Fight

Cybersecarmor.com – In a Denver federal courtroom on Wednesday, Sept. 2, a 50-year-old former school security guard recounted what happened the moment a 15-year-old football player swung a roundhouse left elbow into his neck. John Darjean told the judge and jury that he began losing bladder control, felt his balance collapse, and was eventually loaded into an ambulance — all within minutes of trying to take a teenager’s phone away at the behest of the boy’s father, Colorado head coach Deion Sanders.

The testimony marked the third day of a Chapter 7 bankruptcy proceeding in which Shilo Sanders, now 26, is fighting to escape an $11.89 million judgment tied to that single afternoon at his Dallas high school on Sept. 17, 2015. The outcome will determine whether Sanders walks away from the debt or remains legally obligated to pay it for years to come.

The Incident as Darjean Described It

Darjean spent more than two hours on the stand describing the sequence of events. He said he was called to pull Sanders out of class because the teenager was suspected of shooting dice, a violation of school rules. Once outside, Darjean attempted to confiscate the phone per policy — an action Deion Sanders had specifically requested by phone that day.

“I started urinating on myself,” Darjean testified. “I had a lot of pee going down my leg and I was like, ‘Why am I peeing on myself?'”

He described three strikes: the initial elbow blow to the neck, followed by two punches to the face before he regained his footing. The dizziness and loss of coordination were so severe that he required emergency transport to a hospital. Darjean also detailed the phone exchanges he had with Deion Sanders that afternoon, painting a picture of a father who was actively directing the phone retrieval.

Before and during his testimony, Darjean stepped away multiple times to manage chronic back pain he attributes to the 2015 injuries, which include ongoing incontinence. At one point before taking the stand, he walked to the rear of the courtroom and lay face-down on the carpeted floor to ease the pain.

Sanders’ Counter-Narrative

Shilo Sanders also returned to the witness stand Wednesday, reiterating his claim that Darjean was the aggressor. He told the court that the security guard choked him, caused him to black out, and tore skin from his arm while grabbing him in an attempt to retrieve the phone.

“I did nothing to Mr. Darjean,” Sanders testified.

Under questioning from Darjean’s attorney, Ori Raphael, Sanders admitted he could not recall whether he filed a police report accusing Darjean of assault or whether he sought medical treatment after the alleged choking. When Raphael pressed him on photographic evidence of torn skin, Sanders acknowledged he had no such images from a nurse.

Sanders did present photos he said he personally took of his injuries that day. They show marks on his upper arm and lower neck but do not depict the skin-tearing he described in his Sept. 1 testimony. Raphael probed the timing of those photographs and suggested alternative explanations for the visible marks.

The Legal Framework and What’s at Stake

The dispute traces back to a 2016 civil suit Darjean filed against the then-teenager. Sanders never appeared at the 2022 trial in Texas, and the judge entered a default judgment of $11.89 million. In her written ruling, that judge concluded Sanders “did in fact cause physical harm and injuries to John Darjean by assaulting him” on the day in question.

When Darjean moved to collect on the judgment in 2023, Sanders responded by filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, seeking a discharge that would wipe the debt and grant him what bankruptcy law calls a “fresh start.” The central question before Federal Bankruptcy Judge Michael E. Romero is whether the debt qualifies for discharge. Under the Bankruptcy Code, a debtor cannot eliminate obligations arising from a “willful and malicious injury.” Darjean’s legal team must prove that standard by a preponderance of the evidence; Sanders argues he never struck Darjean at all and was himself the victim of aggression.

Every witness, every photograph, and every phone record in this trial circles back to one question: what actually happened in that hallway outside a Dallas classroom on a September afternoon in 2015, and whether the teenager’s actions were deliberate enough to survive the bankruptcy discharge bar. Judge Romero will weigh the competing accounts and issue a ruling once all testimony is complete.