Less than one week after the New England Patriots suffered a crushing defeat in Super Bowl LX, falling to the Seattle Seahawks by a 29-13 score, the teamâs four-time Pro Bowl wide receiver faces a more serious legal issue. Stefon Diggs is set for his first court date Friday Feb. 13 in Dedham District Court, in a case that sees him charged with âfelony strangulation or suffocation and misdemeanor assault and battery,â according to court documents.
But with less than 24 hours to go before Diggsâ arraignment on the charges, there was a jarring development when both of his lawyers withdrew from representing him, according to a Boston Globe report.
Diggs was represented by Boston-area criminal defense lawyers David E. Meier and Michael R. DiStefano, who had previously made statements on Diggsâ behalf denying the charges that stem from an incident with a personal chef at Diggsâ home on Dec. 2, 2025. Whether Meier and DiStefano withdrew from the case on their own volition or whether Diggs fired them remained unclear as of Thursday evening.
Changing legal teams immediately before a court date is never an ideal situation for a criminal defendant, but according to court records cited by the Globe, Diggs has now retained Boston-area lawyer Sara Silva, a partner at the Needham, Massachusetts law firm Silva, Kettlewell & Pignatelli. On her LinkedIn page, Silva â who did not respond to the Globeâs requests for comment â lists her areas of legal practice as âwhite-collar criminal defense, general criminal defense, complex civil litigation, sentencing issues.â
Diggs Has Not Publicly Commented on Charges
The charges against Diggs first surfaced publicly on Dec. 30, 2025, just five days before the Patriotsâ final game of the regular season when they took on and defeated the Miami Dolphins at Gillette Stadium.
According to a police report quoted by Heavy.com reporter Sophie Weller, the charges against Diggs originated with a financial dispute between Diggs and the woman who served as his personal chef at his home in Dedham, Massachusetts, about a 20-minute drive from the Patriotsâ home stadium.
The incident, according to the alleged victim cited by the police report, took place at Diggsâ home on Dec. 2, starting with an argument over an amount of money the chef believed she was owed. As the argument escalated, she told police, Diggs âsmacked her across the face,â and âthen tried to choke her using the crook of his elbow around her neck.â
Diggsâ first and, to date, only public comment on the charges came on Jan. 2, when he said that he had been going through âan emotional timeâ as a result of the allegations, but âitâs definitely an open case, so I canât even say anything about it.â
Diggs Expected to Enter Plea Friday
Diggs is scheduled to appear in Dedham District Court to be arraigned on the charges Friday. Typically, arraignment hearings are where a defendant first hears prosecutors state the charges in a formal setting. Diggs would then be expected to answer the charges by entering a plea of not guilty or guilty, though defendants rarely plead guilty unless they have previously agreed with prosecutors and a judge.
The plea, if entered, would be Diggsâ first public statement responding directly to the charges.
Diggs was initially scheduled to be arraigned in January, but a judge granted his request to push the court date until after the Super Bowl to ensure that it did not conflict with his professional obligations to the Patriots.
The NFL playerâs previous attorneys said in December that Diggs and the chef were attempting to negotiate a financial settlement. Whether his new lawyer, Silva, is continuing to pursue that possibility remains unclear but may be clarified at Fridayâs arraignment hearing.
Like Heavy Sports’s content? Be sure to follow us.
This article was originally published on Heavy Sports
The post Stefon Diggs Case Update: Patriots Star Gets Unwelcome News Before Court Friday appeared first on Heavy Sports.