Colorado football safety Shilo Sanders may have to face the financial repercussions of his assault on Trinity Christian School security guard John Darjean according to Angela Littman, a bankruptcy expert and law professor at the University of Texas.
"Because the facts of the alleged assault weren’t actually litigated in state court, the bankruptcy court will need to hold what’s essentially mini-trial to determine what happened," Littman predicted (h/t USA Today). "And yes, the events of the alleged assault are relevant because if the bankruptcy court decides that Sanders’ role in them rises to the level of willful and malicious injury, then his debt to Darjean will not be dischargeable.
"It’s relatively rare for a debt to be non-dischargeable. But if you’re a creditor with a non-dischargeable debt, you can pursue collection once the case closes."
Darjean is pursuing $11 million in damages after Sanders attacked him and left him paralyzed. Sanders tried to shirk his debts by filing for bankruptcy but Darjean is in hot pursuit of his payout.
Colorado football S Shilo Sanders hurting his case by wearing lavish jewelry
One of Littman's UT colleagues, Mechele Dickerson, warned Shilo that the lavish jewelry he has been sporting in public to match the "Prime Time" fits of his father and brothers could be used against him as he attempts to file for bankruptcy and avoid paying out Darjean.
“If the bling-bling is his, you don’t wear it,” said Dickerson (h/t USA Today). “If the bling-bling is part of an NIL deal that is with a jeweler, he could give it back. You don’t own it anyway (in that case), so just give it back. A good lawyer would say you need to show up looking like a bum from now until the case is dismissed.”
Shilo has not gone about this well, to say the least. Not only will he likely have to fork over a large portion of his NIL earnings to Darjean, he likely has affected his NFL draft stock in the eyes of many front offices.
His 2024 season is a question mark in general given his shoulder injury that could keep him off the field for at least a month.