NFL's Stefon Diggs Denies Strangulation Charge as Chef Testifies in Trial

A Norfolk County jury is hearing sharply conflicting accounts in the trial of NFL wide receiver Stefon Diggs, who faces felony strangulation and misdemeanor assault and battery charges from a December incident.

Prosecutors say Diggs attacked his live-in chef, Mila Adams, by slapping her and putting her in a headlock. Diggs' attorney Andrew Kettlewell told jurors the assault described by the state never happened. "The assault that the Commonwealth described in their opening statement never happened," Kettlewell said. "It did not happen."

Diggs, then with the New England Patriots, pleaded not guilty. He is now an unrestricted free agent after the team released him in March to escape his $26.5 million salary cap hit for 2026.

Adams testified that after a verbal argument on Dec. 2, she blocked her bedroom door to keep Diggs out. "When I went up to push his, like block him, he took his arm and came around my neck with his elbow around my neck and began to choke me, put pressure on my neck," she said. Assistant District Attorney Drew Virtue said Adams would describe how Diggs entered her room, slapped her, choked her until breathing was difficult, and threw her on the bed.

Adams paused to compose herself as her eyes watered during testimony. She said her relationship with Diggs started as friends, turned sexual, and led to her working for him starting in February 2025. Hours after the incident, she gave him a birthday gift. She told arriving police that Diggs owed her money for her work.

Kettlewell said no one else in the house saw or heard an attack. He noted the absence of medical records, photos or video evidence. He portrayed the clash as a monetary dispute that escalated when Adams learned she would not join Diggs' planned trip to Miami.

"It's your job to determine what happened on Dec. 2," Virtue told jurors in his opening.

Diggs, 32, did not speak to reporters outside Norfolk County District Court in Dedham, a Boston suburb. Last season marked his seventh 1,000-yard receiving year in eight, helping the Patriots reach the Super Bowl. No team has shown serious interest amid the trial. The NFL is monitoring proceedings for any violation of its Personal Conduct Policy.