Deion Sanders wins protective order against wife

Both Deion Sanders and his soon-to-be ex-wife Pilar Sanders left the Collin County Courthouse smiling late Monday after District Judge Ray Wheless granted Sanders a protective order against Pilar, and both he and Pilar were vindicated of any assault or family violence accusations.

Both Deion and Pilar had sought protective orders against each other.

It was a bittersweet victory for the Sanders, who have three children together, as a custody hearing is still scheduled for May 15 and the dividing of assets must be determined later in a divorce court.

A hearing that began last Thursday morning and was originally expected to last only a day finally concluded just before 7 p.m. Monday, after Deion and Pilar spent more than four hours each on the witness stand. Dee Boswell, a friend of Pilar who was involved in an altercation at the Sanders' home April 23, also spent time on the witness stand Monday afternoon.

Following a long day of testimony, Wheless had planned to visit individually with the Sanders' children who were waiting outside the courtroom. However, Wheless said he believed he had heard enough testimony to render rulings on the protective order and the allegations of family violence without visiting with the children.

He gave permission to Deion to have temporary custody of the two boys, ages 10 and 12, and Pilar was allowed to take their 8-year-old daughter with her.

Although Pilar was choked and injured during the scuffle outside the Sanders' master bedroom, Wheless said the injuries were accidental because Deion did not intentionally injure his wife but was simply trying to remove her from the area.

"The court finds this is a family in conflict," Wheless said. However, he added that, according to law, no family violence occurred.

After Prosper police had responded to the altercation at the Sanders home, Pilar was first taken by ambulance to a nearby Presbyterian hospital where she was treated for a thumb injury and a bleeding lip, and then was taken to the Collin County Detention Center where she spent the night before being released on bond. Deion was later cited for assault.

Peter Schulte, Pilar's criminal attorney, said following Monday's rulings that he expects all criminal charges "to go away soon" as a result of Wheless' ruling.

Wheless said his rulings supersede an earlier emergency protective order by a justice of the peace who had ruled that Pilar must stay at least 100 yards from the residence for 60 days. Wheless ordered her not to come any closer than 500 yards to the residence.

Pilar told the court that, on April 23, she had not seen her 10-year-old son for four days, and that she had come to the master bedroom where her husband and two boys stayed in hopes of seeing him.

After several attempts to get her son to come to the door, she started screaming. Deion and the two boys were inside the bedroom.

Boswell testified she was in Pilar's upstairs bedroom when she heard Pilar screaming downstairs. She said she turned on her camera phone and began recording as she raced toward the conflict.

She said when she arrived near the downstairs bedroom, she saw Deion about to hit Pilar over the head with a statue.

At that point of the hearing, Deion walked out of the courtroom and promptly returned, carting in a five-foot statue of a woman holding a gold pitcher on her head. Boswell agreed with Rick Robertson, Deion's attorney, that the statue must weigh at least 70 pounds.

When Pilar took the stand, she said she had grabbed the elbow of the statue after using the statue to make noise and had pulled the statue toward her. She said she placed her hands over her head to protect herself. She was not injured by the statue.

She also told the court that she carried pepper spray and a small recorder on her and that she was not even aware she was recording at the time of the incident. She said she did not use the pepper spray on her husband because, "It was not my intention to hurt him."

Deion said Boswell came toward her aiming the camera phone at him. Boswell said he took the phone away from her and took it out on the patio and smashed it to pieces with a dumbbell. When police arrived, the memory card from the smashed phone was confiscated.

Deion had accused his wife of "beating" one of the boys out of anger. Asked by Larry Friedman, Pilar's defense attorney, if he believed in disciplining children, Deion replied, "It is one thing to discipline in love and another to beat someone in anger."

He said she had beaten the 10-year-old boy with a belt. However, Pilar testified she had only "popped him twice" with the belt after he failed to show her respect during a late-night incident in the home.

As Wheless made his rulings, he ordered her not to discipline the children except with her hand in the future.

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