{"id":749584,"date":"2026-02-13T15:52:19","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T15:52:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/749584\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T15:52:19","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T15:52:19","slug":"patriots-star-wide-receiver-stefon-diggs-pleads-not-guilty-to-assault-charges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/749584\/","title":{"rendered":"Patriots star wide receiver Stefon Diggs pleads not guilty to assault charges"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fresh off the Super Bowl, veteran Patriots wide receiver Stefon Diggs pleaded not guilty this morning in Dedham District Court to assault charges<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s accused of felony strangulation or suffocation and a lesser assault and battery charge against a live-in chef, according to the DA.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are confident that after the facts and evidence are reviewed in this case, he will be completely exonerated,\u201d attorney Mitchell Schuster told reporters.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Diggs is facing criminal charges stemming from an incident on Dec. 2, a day after the Patriots improved to 10-3 following a blowout win over the New York Giants on \u201cMonday Night Football.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schuster, the attorney representing Diggs on Friday, declined to share facts of the case to the media outside the Dedham courthouse, admitting \u201cthey will be presented, and when they are presented, it will paint a very different picture.\u201d<\/p>\n

A police report from Dedham PD, highlights how the alleged victim \u2013 a woman, later self-described as Diggs\u2019 \u201cprivate chef\u201d \u2013 came to the station on Dec. 16 to inform officers of the alleged Dec. 2 assault.<\/p>\n

The victim told police that the alleged assault stemmed from an argument over pay that she said\u00a0 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 \u201cusing the crook of his elbow around her neck,\u201d according to the police report.<\/p>\n

According to the police report, the victim alleged that under an initial agreement with Diggs, she\u2019d be paid weekly, but that she was being paid monthly since her employment began.<\/p>\n

In early November, Diggs allegedly told the woman that her employment was \u201cnot needed\u201d 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 \u201cthis type of work arrangement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Diggs \u201ccategorically denies the allegations,\u201d the Patriots said in a statement after the charges came out against their leading wide receiver in late December.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe New England Patriots are aware of the accusations that have been made regarding Stefon Diggs,\u201d the organization said in a statement.. \u201cWe support Stefon.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 32-year-old Diggs has become a leading voice of the Patriots\u2019 resurgent ethos, making this off-season vital to his future success. He recovered from an ACL tear to become the team\u2019s first 1,000-yard receiver since 2019. He is under a 3-year contract, but in the NFL, that doesn\u2019t always equate to an automatic invitation back to summer camp.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why this case remains pivotal in an off-season of uncertainty.<\/p>\n

\"NewNew England Patriot wide receiver Stefon Diggs appears at Dedham District Court. (Staff photo by Stuart Cahill)<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"NewNew England Patriot wide receiver Stefon Diggs appears at Dedham District Court. (Staff photo by Stuart Cahill)
\n\"NewNew England Patriot wide receiver Stefon Diggs leaves at Dedham District Court. (Staff photo by Stuart Cahill)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fresh off the Super Bowl, veteran Patriots wide receiver Stefon Diggs pleaded not guilty this morning in Dedham…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":749585,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2050],"tags":[61160,7,929,4247,7502,1167,249,2326,2094,88,6,208,9,107578],"class_list":{"0":"post-749584","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-england-patriots","8":"tag-crime-public-safety","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-latest-headlines","11":"tag-local-news","12":"tag-massachusetts","13":"tag-new-england","14":"tag-new-england-patriots","15":"tag-newengland","16":"tag-newenglandpatriots","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-nfl","19":"tag-patriots","20":"tag-sports","21":"tag-watchdog"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116064129840803800","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=749584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749584\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/749585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=749584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=749584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=749584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}