BOSTON (AP):
New England Patriots star wide receiver Stefon Diggs is facing strangulation and other criminal charges in connection with a dispute with his former private chef, police said.
News of the charges emerged after a court hearing on Tuesday in Dedham, Massachusetts. Diggs is charged with felony strangulation, or suffocation, and misdemeanour assault and battery.
Diggs’ lawyer, David Meier, said in an emailed statement that Diggs “categorically denies these allegations”.
Meier said the allegations never occurred, describing them as unsubstantiated and uncorroborated. A court arraignment is scheduled for January 23.
“The timing and motivation for making the allegations is crystal-clear: they are the direct result of an employee-employer financial dispute that was not resolved to the employee’s satisfaction,” Meier wrote.
In a statement, the Patriots said they were also standing by Diggs: “We support Stefon,” the team said.
A police narrative in a court filing about the case said a woman came to the Dedham Police Department on December 16 to say that two weeks earlier, while working as a private chef for Diggs, he came into her bedroom and became angry during a discussion about money. The woman told the police Diggs “smacked her across the face”, she tried to push him away, and then he “tried to choke her using the crook of his elbow around her neck”.
“She said that he was behind her with his arm wrapped around her,” wrote Officer Kenneth J. Ellis. “She said that she did feel like she had trouble breathing and that she felt like she could have blacked out.” Diggs threw her on a bed and said “lies” when she told him she had not been paid, Ellis wrote.
The chef sought payment for a week in November when Diggs was having houseguests and she had to go home, Ellis wrote. The woman “left her position” and the home in Dedham, but returned on December 9 to retrieve her property. At that point, she told the police, Diggs referred her to his assistant, who told the woman she had to sign a non-disclosure agreement before she would be paid. She did not sign it, the police said.
The woman was reluctant to file charges until last week, Ellis wrote, when “she let me know that she had changed her mind from a few days ago” and wanted criminal charges.
Diggs, 32, established himself as one of the NFL’s best wide receivers during a run with Minnesota and Buffalo from 2018 to 2023, when he had six consecutive 1,000-yard receiving seasons and was selected to the Pro Bowl four times.
After a lacklustre stint in Houston last year, Diggs ended up in New England, signing a three-year, US$69-million deal in free agency that guaranteed him US$26 million.
Diggs has proven a reliable target for second-year quarterback Drake Maye and is a big reason why the team has once again clinched the AFC East title as the team heads toward the play-offs.
Off the field, though, his tenure with the Patriots got off to a rocky start when a video surfaced on social media in May showing Diggs passing what appeared to be a bag of pink crystals to women on a boat.
It wasn’t clear what the substance was, and an NFL spokesperson said the league would not comment. Patriots coach Mike Vrabel said the team would handle that matter internally.
Grammy Award-winning rapper Cardi B has posted photos in recent months of the newborn son she has with Diggs.
