DEDHAM, Mass. — Fresh off the Super Bowl, veteran New England Patriots wide receiver Stefon Diggs pleaded not guilty Friday morning in Dedham District Court to assault charges.
He’s accused of felony strangulation or suffocation and a lesser assault and battery charge against a live-in chef, according to the DA.
He was released on personal recognizance and is due back in court April 1. The hearing was over faster than Diggs can run an out route, and his attorney spoke briefly outside the court, saying Diggs will be proven innocent.
“We are confident that after the facts and evidence are reviewed in this case, he will be completely exonerated,” attorney Mitchell Schuster told reporters.
The arraignment lasted less than 5 minutes, with the next step a pretrial hearing. Diggs has also been ordered to stay away from the alleged victim, including third-party contact.
Diggs is facing criminal charges stemming from an incident Dec. 2, a day after the Patriots improved to 11-2 following a blowout win over the New York Giants on “Monday Night Football.”
Schuster, the attorney representing Diggs on Friday, declined to share facts of the case to the media outside the Dedham courthouse, saying “they will be presented, and when they are presented, it will paint a very different picture.”
A police report from Dedham PD highlights how the alleged victim — a woman, later self-described as Diggs’ “private chef” — came to the station Dec. 16 to inform officers of the alleged Dec. 2 assault.
The victim told police the alleged assault stemmed from an argument over pay that she said Diggs owed her. Following a text and verbal dispute, she accused Diggs of smacking her in the face and said further that he tried to choke her “using the crook of his elbow around her neck,” according to the police report.
According to the police report, the victim alleged that under an initial agreement with Diggs, she’d be paid weekly, but that she was being paid monthly since her employment began.
In early November, Diggs allegedly told the woman that her employment was “not needed” the week of Nov. 7-14. The victim further alleges that Diggs did not pay her salary that week, which she said she was obligated to in “this type of work arrangement.”
Diggs “categorically denies the allegations,” the Patriots said in a statement after the charges came out against their leading wide receiver in late December.
“The New England Patriots are aware of the accusations that have been made regarding Stefon Diggs,” the organization said in a statement. “We support Stefon.”
The 32-year-old Diggs has become a leading voice of the Patriots’ resurgent ethos, making this offseason vital to his future success. He recovered from an ACL tear to become the team’s first 1,000-yard receiver since 2019. He is under a three-year contract, but in the NFL, that doesn’t always equate to an automatic invitation back to summer camp.
That’s why this case remains pivotal in an offseason of uncertainty.
