It seems Shilo Sanders just cannot stay away from legal trouble, with one courtroom battle seemingly giving way to another. His ongoing trial is yet to reach its conclusion, and while his legal team still has its closing arguments to submit, John Darjean has already done his part. The attorney has filed a hefty 53-page closing argument, putting even more pressure on Deion Sanders’ middle child.
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Back in October, Judge Michael E. Romero extended the deadline for closing statements from November 16 to December 21. However, Darjean did not need the additional time, as his plaintiff’s filing was submitted on November 9. In it, he urged the bankruptcy judge to reject Sanders’ attempt to escape the debt and enter a federal judgment that would hold him financially liable indefinitely.
Darjean and his legal team’s 53-page closing argument urges the court to dismiss Shilo Sanders’ testimony from the recent bankruptcy trial, arguing that his claims about the bankruptcy proceedings are baseless and lack credibility.
“The evidence is not close,” said the court filing from John Darjean, Sanders’ $12 million creditor.
Darjean’s legal team has now turned its attention to challenging the credibility of Sanders’ defence. In the brief, his attorney, Ori Raphael, argued that “The record of what happened is credible and unrebutted,” further asserting that the account “is corroborated from every direction.”
The brief reiterates the position Darjean and his attorney have maintained throughout the case, challenging Sanders’ credibility and accusing him of having “willfully and maliciously injured Plaintiff John Darjean.”
“The Court enter its own judgment for that amount … so that the non-dischargeable debt is reduced to a federal judgment that may be registered and enforced in any district,” the brief read.
Judge Michael E. Romero will be able to deliver his final ruling after reviewing the closing arguments submitted by both sides, with December 21 set as the deadline for the final submissions.
Darjean, meanwhile, remains adamant that Shilo assaulted him by elbowing him in the neck and punching him with enough force to cause permanent nerve damage.
Interestingly, Darjean also suffered a medical emergency during the trial, collapsing on Thursday, September 3, 2026, after testifying for more than two hours. He was subsequently escorted out of the courtroom and taken to hospital by ambulance.
Sanders, on the other hand, has continued to maintain that he was defending himself when Darjean allegedly confronted him. His legal filing also challenges the credibility of two defence witnesses, claiming they reported seeing no physical blows, however, they later altered their accounts compared with their initial statements following the incident.
The legal dispute between Shilo Sanders and former school security guard John Darjean dates back to 2015, when Sanders, who was 15 back then, allegedly assaulted Darjean after he attempted to confiscate his phone at Focus Learning Academy in Dallas, Texas. Following the incident, Darjean filed a civil lawsuit in 2016 seeking compensation.
The case continued until March 2022, when Sanders failed to appear at trial, prompting the court to enter a default judgment of $11,890,937 against him. In October 2023, when Darjean went ahead to collect the compensation, Sanders filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, seeking to discharge his debts.
Darjean challenged the bankruptcy filing, and after years of legal proceedings dating back to 2016, the case now appears set to reach a conclusion in December.
Things are not looking good for Sanders, but the outcome will become clear in late December.