Sunday, April 19, 1998

Records show Deion Sanders owes thousands in back taxes

DALLAS (AP) - Dallas Cowboys cornerback Deion Sanders owes more than $50,000 in 1997 taxes, according to a copyright story in the Plano Star Courier.

Collin County tax records show Sanders owed $53,825.91 as of last week for back taxes on his Plano home, according to the Friday article. He will owe $54,795.75 in May if he has not paid by then.

The 1997 taxes were due Jan. 31.

Lawyers for Sanders and his ex-wife, Carolyn Chambers Sanders, did not return phone calls Friday.

The football star on April 10 donated $1 million to The Potter's House, a nondenominational church he credits with his religious salvation. He gave the money for the church's recreational and academic children's program.

Church officials said nearly half the donation came from the advance Sanders received to write his autobiography, "Power, Money and Sex: It's a Man Thing."

Meanwhile, Sanders and his ex-wife are on the receiving end of a damage lawsuit filed in 199th District Court.

Former landlords Robert G. and Cheryl L. Pembleton allege the former couple owes $30,300 in costs and fees related to a Plano home Carolyn Sanders occupied with her son and daughter in late 1996.

District Court Judge Robert Dry decided Thursday to keep Deion Sanders as a party in the lawsuit, which primarily has been filed against his former wife.

Dry also refused to open the Sanders' sealed divorce records for use as evidence in the damages case. The amount of that divorce settlement remains sealed along with the other Sanders divorce records in Judge Curt Henderson's 219th District Court.

Mrs. Sanders originally filed for divorce in September 1996, but asked to dismiss the suit about a week later. At the time, Mrs. Sanders said she and her husband had reconciled. She filed for divorce again in March 1997.