Ex New England Patriots star Stefon Diggs teared up as a jury cleared him of assaulting his personal chef in December after his defense team hammered his accuser on the witness stand and showed videos of her dancing after the alleged attack.
The six-person jury rendered its verdict after just 90 minutes of deliberations that began at 3 p.m. following testimony from the prosecution’s star witness, Jamila Adams — who was Diggs’ live-in chef for six months last year and claims he slapped and choked her on Dec. 2, 2025.
Diggs — who welled up after he heard the verdict — faced up to five years in prison on the top charge of strangulation and two-and-a-half years in jail for misdemeanor assault.
The Pro Bowl wide receiver didn’t comment on his way out of court but his lawyer lauded the verdict as a vindication and said he expected Diggs to get signed to a team soon.
“Teams have been reluctant to sign him with these false charges hanging over his head and now that he’s been exonerated and his truth has been heard … he’s been vindicated and I believe a team will reach out and sign him imminently,” defense attorney Mitchell Schuster said outside court after.
Diggs never considered settling with Adams because “he was falsely accused and he wanted everyone to know that,” Schuster said.
“He’s emotional but he’s happy,” the lawyer said, before noting Diggs would be focusing next on OTAs, assuming he is signed to a new team.
A spokesperson for the Norfolk District Attorney’s Office thanked the jury and said “we respect their decision.”
During the two-day trial that took place in a Dedham, Mass., courtroom, Adams testified through tears about the alleged harrowing assault in which Diggs came to her room where she was living in his Dedham mansion to confront her about a fight they were having over text message.
Adams — who admitted she’d slept with him before she started working for him — claimed she was messaging Diggs about why she wasn’t invited to join him and others on a trip to Miami for the Art Basel exposition.
Diggs came into her bedroom and was “very angry” asking her “what was all that s–t you was talking?” she told the jury.
“He smacked me with an open hand” Adams testified, adding when she tried to block him he responded “That s–t is not going to work.”
“He took his arm and he came around my neck with his elbow … and he began to choke me,” she said.
She was so terrified she wet her pants, she testified.
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Adams faced a blistering cross-examination by Diggs’ team who pressed her about whether her lawyer sought a $5.5 million payout from Diggs just three weeks before trial started — a question she refused to answer despite being asked three times.
Diggs’ side called a series of witnesses Tuesday who were at his house the day of the alleged attack and who said they didn’t hear any fight take place or see any signs of injuries on Adams.
Adams’ friend and Diggs’ hairstylist, Xi Charles, told the jury a few weeks after the alleged assault Adams told her she planned to sue Diggs for the pay he allegedly owed her for the $2,000-a-week gig.
And even though Adams went to stay with Charles in New York for a week after the incident, she never mentioned it to Charles.
During closing arguments prosecutor Drew Virtue said the reason Adams didn’t tell anyone in Diggs’ circle about the alleged attack was because they were all “on his payroll” and all liked him.
Still, the prosecutor admitted Adams wasn’t “a perfect witness” and that she was “argumentative, avoidant and difficult.” He said that didn’t mean the jury shouldn’t believe her claims.
Diggs’ defense lawyer, Andrew Kettlewell, said during his closing arguments that Adams “made this accusation as a means to leverage, humiliate and punish Stefon Diggs.”
Diggs — who is a free agent after one season with the Patriots in 2025 — has maintained his innocence.
Diggs has played in the NFL since 2015 when he started with the Minnesota Vikings, before moving to the Buffalo Bills and the Houston Texans after that.
