A deputy with the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office showed up at the University of Colorado campus last week to serve civil papers to Deion Sanders while the coach was at an open practice and inaccessible.
The officer was informed that the Buffaloes coach was “unavailable at the time to receive receipt of the papers,” a spokesperson with the sheriff's office said Wednesday. Sanders is being subpoenaed to testify as part of a bankruptcy trial involving his son, Shilo, that begins on Aug. 31, according to USA Today.
The Colorado athletic department had no additional information. The Buffaloes open the season on Sept. 3 at Georgia Tech.
The deputy arrived on campus at 10:22 a.m. on Aug. 11 with civil papers. It was the day the Buffaloes held an open practice with specific rules in place that nothing observed could be reported, published or shared.
Carrie Haverfield, a senior communications specialist for the sheriff’s office, wrote in an email to The Associated Press that it's not uncommon for civil papers to take several attempts to serve.
“While working with university staff to find a better time to complete the process, we heard from Mr. Sanders’ legal counsel who indicated that they were able to receive receipt of the papers on behalf of Mr. Sanders, however, they were not located in Boulder County, so we transferred the paperwork to Denver to be served,” Haverfield wrote. “We did not find any university staff to be attempting to block the civil service, on the contrary, they were attempting to help our deputy find a better time to do so. We do not disclose the specific contents of civil papers that we serve.”
Shilo Sanders remains in litigation over a lawsuit stemming from an incident with a security guard when he was in high school. The guard filed a lawsuit against Sanders and was issued a default judgment when Sanders didn’t show for his court date.
The hard-hitting safety who played for his dad at Colorado was waived by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last August.
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