On August 11, 2017, Magistrate Judge Ramirez sanctioned former Dallas Cowboys player Deion Sanders and ordered him to show cause in a qui tam case brought against Sanders. In the sanctions Order (available here), Judge Ramirez noted that Sanders failed to attend a court hearing after being ordered to personally attend. (Note to self: If I’m ever ordered to personally attend a hearing by a court and miss it, I’d better be dead or in the hospital.) Sanders further failed to comply with an earlier order that ordered him to provide certain discovery. Judge Ramirez assessed costs and fees against Sanders in the amount of $2,200, and ordered him to provide his discovery responses and documents by August 25, 2017.
In the Order to Show Cause (available here), Judge Ramirez ordered Sanders to show cause at an evidentiary hearing why his pleadings should not be stricken and default entered as a discovery sanction for failure to comply with past discovery orders and his failure to comply with the Court’s Order requiring him to appear at the discovery hearing.
The evidentiary hearing was set for Friday, September 1, 2017. On September 1, the Court entered the following minute entry: “ELECTRONIC Minute Entry for proceedings held before Magistrate Judge Irma Carrillo Ramirez: Evidentiary Hearing NOT HELD on 9/1/2017. Deion L Sanders did no[t] appear or otherwise notify the court.” If I were a betting man, I’d say that things are not going to end well for Sanders.