Stefon Diggs case example of athletes who 'have target on their back,' lawyer says

TL;DR

Stefon Diggs was found not guilty of felony strangulation and misdemeanor assault in a case brought by his former chef. His defense argued he was falsely accused of domestic violence.

Key points

Stefon Diggs was found not guilty of felony strangulation.
He faced misdemeanor assault and battery charges.
The jury deliberated for less than 90 minutes.
Diggs' defense claimed he was falsely accused.
Witnesses testified that the alleged victim showed no signs of abuse.

Mentioned in this story

Mitchell Shuster

Stefon Diggs

Emotional but happy.

That’s the state of Stefon Diggs, the NFL wide receiver who was found not guilty May 5 in a case brought against him by his former chef who said he choked and slapped her in December 2025.

Happy because a jury returned a not guilty verdict on both counts – felony strangulation and misdemeanor assault and battery – Diggs faced. Emotional because, according to Mitchell Shuster – a member of Diggs’ defense team – Diggs was falsely accused of committing the “serious” crime of domestic violence.

“Domestic violence is a very, very serious issue in this country and it’s disconcerting when people use it as a sword and manufacture claims in an attempt to extract money,” Shuster said. “I believe the jury saw through that today and we are very, very pleased with this result.”

Diggs’ defense team, Shuster said, wanted the trial to progress so that a verdict could be quickly reached. The jury deliberated for hardly 90 minutes and never saw any evidence from the prosecution aside from the word of the alleged victim. The defense called multiple witnesses who testified they spent time with Adams in the days following the alleged attack. All maintained that Adams never mentioned the attack and showed no sigs of physical abuse to her neck or face.

One of Diggs' attorneys, Andrew Kettlewell, pointed the jury to deleted text messages from a series of messages Adams showed the police officer to whom she initially reported the incident.

“There were a lot of missteps in this case,” said Shuster, referring to the prosecution, which relied entirely on the word of Mila Adams.

Former New England Patriots wide receiver Stefon Diggs arrives at Dedham District Court on Tuesday, May 5, 2026 for the second day of his assault trial.