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(NEW YORK) — As Khelin Marcano was preparing for her routine scheduled appointment with Immigration and Customs Enforcement in December, she debated packing a bag full of her 1-year-old daughter’s clothes. While she and her husband had been attending appointments without issue, she knew others were being detained at government buildings by immigration authorities.

“When they told us we were being detained, it felt like we already knew, all along,” Marcano told ABC News.

The family, including 1-year-old Amalia, was quickly sent from El Paso to Texas’ Dilley immigration detention center, where they were detained for 60 days — joining hundreds of other families that the government has held for durations that advocates say exceed the limits established by federal court rulings.

Those restrictions stem from the Flores Settlement, a 1997 legal agreement that a federal court has interpreted to mean that the government generally should not hold children in immigration custody for more than 20 days.

As of last month, there were about 1,400 people being held at Dilley, including children and parents, according to RAICES, a legal immigrant advocacy group. The facility was closed during the Biden administration and was re-opened last year as the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown ramped up. 

The 60 days that Marcano, her husband Stiven Prieto, and their daughter were held there is three times the general legal limit permitted by the settlement.

“The Trump administration is holding children and families in detention for prolonged periods of time, weeks, months,” Elora Mukherjee, the family’s lawyer, told ABC News. “Children and families at the Dilley facility don’t have access to sufficient clean drinking water, where they don’t have access to sufficient nutritious food, [and] don’t have access to adequate medical care.

‘Why does this happen to us?’
The family entered the U.S. using the Biden-era Customs and Border Protection app in 2024, according to court documents. They were processed and granted parole to live in the country while applying for asylum. The family was released last week after their 60-day detention and their first court date is scheduled for 2027, according to their attorney.

A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said the family “was released into the country under the Biden administration,” and confirmed their detention.

“For years, the Flores consent decree has been a tool of the left to promote an open borders agenda,” the DHS spokesperson said. “It is long overdue for a single district in California to stop managing the Executive Branch’s immigration functions. The Trump administration is committed to restoring common sense to our immigration system.”

Early on during their detention, the family says 1-year-old Amalia developed a persistent fever. Marcano told ABC News that despite her repeated pleas for medication, the medical staff dismissed the symptoms.

“The doctor told me that fever was a good sign because it meant she was actively fighting a virus,” Marcano said in Spanish. “I got really upset … and told her that whatever the case was, a fever is not a good thing. If she didn’t know that fever could kill people, or that fever could cause convulsions, fever would never be good.”

In a habeas petition Marcano filed against the government, she and her attorney claimed the Dilley facility lacked basic hygiene and nutrition, and that they saw bugs in the food. They alleged that the tap water smelled so strongly of chlorine that the family spent their limited funds on bottled water for their daughter. 

Marcano told ABC News that at one point during their detention, Amalia seemed to lose her strength and collapsed in her arms.

“I grabbed her and I dressed her and I took her back to the clinic, and I began to argue with the doctors, asking who would be responsible for my daughter if something happened to her,” Marcano said.

Marcano said it was only then that staff at Dilley transported her and Amalia by ambulance to a regional hospital, and later to a larger hospital in San Antonio. The 1-year-old was diagnosed with COVID-19 and a respiratory virus.  according to the family and their habeas petition.

According to Marcano’s complaint, hospital staff provided her with a nebulizer and Albuterol to treat Amalia’s respiratory distress — but when they returned to the Dilley facility, the staff immediately confiscated both the nebulizer and the medication.

“They took her treatment away,” Marcano said. “Why does this happen to us if we have done everything right? I was begging the officers to please help me get out of there, and no one listened to me.”

The family was released together shortly after they filed a habeas petition. Marcano told ABC News that, while inside the facility, she met families with pregnant women and saw children as young as 2 months old.

Long-term effects
Several immigrant advocates and attorneys told ABC News that the Trump administration is keeping children and families who are seeking asylum and other forms of legal relief in prolonged detention.

In Minneapolis, where 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos was detained along with his father on their way home from school last month, local school officials told ABC News that immigration authorities had detained four other students from the district. One of them, 11-year-old Elizabeth Zuna Caisaguano, was detained along with her mother for more than one month, according to the family’s attorney, Bobby Painter.

“They were pulled over by ICE and pulled out of their car, thrown on an airplane and sent to Dilley, all in the span of maybe 24 hours,” the attorney said.

Some families have been held for months, attorneys told ABC News.

“The effects of detention are long-term on children,” Mukherjee, Marcano’s attorney, told ABC News. “Children who are with their parents and who are safe with their parents should never be detained when it’s not in a child’s best interest.”

The DHS, in a statement, said “being in detention is a choice.”

“We encourage all parents to take control of their departure with the CBP Home App,” the spokesperson said. “The United States is offering illegal aliens $2,600 and a free flight to self-deport now.”

Since being released, Marcano said her daughter hardly cries at night anymore like she did when they were at the detention center.

“We’re feeling very good and thank god for his blessings,” she told ABC News. “We’re still a little on edge about what we were planning to do given everything ahead. So we’re left here thinking about what is going to happen to us and that gives us a bit of fear.”

“Are they going to leave us alone?” Marcano said. “That’s what we hope, but we don’t know.”

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(CHICAGO) — A Chicago teen who fought for her father’s release from immigration detention while she was battling stage 4 cancer, has died, a representative for her family says.

Ofelia Torres died Friday at age 16, according to the family representative. The cause of death was metastatic alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma — a rare and aggressive form of cancer.

Torres grabbed the national spotlight last fall after her undocumented father, Ruben Torres-Maldonado, was detained by immigration agents during the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, dubbed “Operation Midway Blitz.” Torres posted a video on social media calling for his release, and was also interviewed on ABC News’ “Nightline.”

A representative for Torres’ family said that just three days before she died, an immigration judge ruled that her father was conditionally entitled to receive cancellation of removal, which could provide a pathway to a green card. Torres watched the hearing virtually, the family said.

In the “Nightline” interview last fall, Torres said she initially tried to keep her cancer diagnosis private, but said she was speaking out to defend her father. 

“I need the world to know my dad’s story and if that means letting the world know I have cancer, so be it. I don’t care,” she said. “I need my dad.”

In a statement, Kalman Resnick, the attorney representing Torres’ father, said: “Ofelia was heroic and brave in the face of ICE’s detention and threatened deportation of her father. We mourn Ofelia’s passing, and we hope that she will serve as a model for us all for how to be courageous and to fight for what’s right to our last breaths.”

Torres-Maldonado was taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at a Home Depot in Niles, Illinois, outside Chicago on Oct. 18 before being released on bond about two weeks later.

Resnick, who represented Torres-Maldonado, told reporters at a press conference last fall that federal agents surrounded Torres-Maldonado’s truck, smashed a window and dragged him into a vehicle at gunpoint. 

At the time, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin alleged that Torres-Maldonado had backed into a government vehicle while attempting to flee. 

DHS maintained Torres-Maldonado was a “criminal illegal alien” with a history of  driving without insurance, driving without a valid license and speeding.

In the “Nightline” interview Torres said that despite how her father was treated, she had “nothing but love” for the federal agents who arrested her father.

“To the ICE agents who smashed my dad’s window, to the ICE agent who pointed a gun at my dad, I’m not mad at you … I just want you to know that that was not the right thing to do,” she told ABC News’ Stephanie Ramos.

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(NEW YORK) — Severe weather is headed to the deep South, from Texas to Mississippi, with damaging winds, possible tornadoes and some large hail forecast.

A powerful storm system will move out of the Rockies on Saturday and will bring the severe weather across the deep South.

Storms will move into Dallas, Texas, late Saturday morning, with some gusty winds and very heavy rain.

The storms will move through Houston between 7 and 9 p.m. Saturday with damaging winds, a threat for an isolated tornado and some heavy rain.

New Orleans, Louisiana, and Jackson, Mississippi, will see storms moving through between midnight and 2 a.m. Damaging winds, isolated tornado and heavy rain is possible.

Storms move through Birmingham and Montgomery, Alabama, early Sunday morning from 5 to 8 a.m. with gusty winds and heavy rain.

Atlanta gets storms and heavy rain mid to late morning Sunday, but severe weather with tornado threat will stay south into Albany, Georgia, to Panama City, Tallahassee, Gainesville, Florida

This same storm system with severe weather will also bring heavy rain from Texas all the way to the Carolinas with a chance for flash flooding.

The highest threat for flash flooding will be from just east of Dallas, Texas, to Little Rock, Arkansas and into Memphis, Tennessee.

Locally some areas could get 2 to 4 inches of rain in a short period of time, causing flash flooding.

After a very dry period for the entire western U.S., a very active storm track has its eyes set on the West. 

Starting Sunday afternoon, a series of storms will pound the West from California to Colorado with very heavy snow in the mountains and heavy rain and flooding for coastal California.

The highest threat for flash flooding and debris flow will be from just south of the San Francisco Bay area down to Los Angeles.

Sunday through Friday, some areas in California could see 3 to 6 inches of rain, which is expected to cause flash flooding and debris flow.

The Sierra Nevada Mountains, in California, some areas could see 3 to 6 feet of snow. The Rockies could also see several feet of snow next week.

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(ST. PAUL, Minn.) — Former CNN journalist Don Lemon pleaded not guilty on Friday to federal civil rights charges in connection with an incident in which anti-ICE protesters disrupted a service at a Minnesota church.

Lemon appeared in federal court in St. Paul before Magistrate Judge Douglas Micko, following his arrest in Los Angeles last month.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

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(DALLAS) — A missing Texas college student has been found safe, police said Friday.

Brianna Arango, 21, a student at Southern Methodist University, was reported missing on Thursday, according to police.

A family member contacted SMU Police at approximately 3:30 p.m. Thursday to report that Arango did not meet with them as planned earlier that afternoon, campus police said. She had a class at 1 p.m. that she also did not attend, police said.

She was last seen that day on the Dallas campus around 12:30 p.m. near Harold Simmons Hall, according to the Southern Methodist University Police Department.

SMU Police said in an advisory on Thursday that they were working to locate her and were “treating this as a matter of concern” while asking for the campus community’s help in locating her.

Campus police updated Friday that they had located Arangao and she is safe.

The incident remains under investigation, police said.

“We know this situation was concerning for many in our community, and we are grateful for your attention and assistance,” SMU Police said. “This remains an active investigation, and law enforcement is limited in the details that can be shared at this time.”

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(WASHINGTON) — The acting head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement says that two of its officers appear to have made “untruthful statements” about shooting a migrant in Minnesota and may face federal charges for their actions.

“Today, a joint review by ICE and the Department of Justice (DOJ) of video evidence has revealed that sworn testimony provided by two separate officers appears to have made untruthful statements,” Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons said in a statement.

“Both officers have been immediately placed on administrative leave pending the completion of a thorough internal investigation. Lying under oath is a serious federal offense. The U.S. Attorney’s Office is actively investigating these false statements,” the statement said.

“The men and women of ICE are entrusted with upholding the rule of law and are held to the highest standards of professionalism, integrity, and ethical conduct. Violations of this sacred sworn oath will not be tolerated. ICE remains fully committed to transparency, accountability, and the fair enforcement of our nation’s immigration laws,” Lyons added.

The statement from Lyons comes a day after the top federal prosecutor in Minnesota asked a judge to dismiss charges against two men, including one who was shot in the leg by an immigration agent, citing “newly discovered evidence” in what was initially framed as a “violent” attack on law enforcement during an enforcement operation.

“Newly discovered evidence in this matter is materially inconsistent with the allegations in the complaint affidavit. … as well as the preliminary-hearing testimony,”  U.S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota Daniel Rosen wrote in the filing Wednesday evening. It remains unclear what specific new evidence Rosen was referencing.

Rosen has asked the court to dismiss the case with prejudice, meaning the charges cannot be refiled.

“Accordingly, dismissal with prejudice will serve the interests of justice,” Rosen wrote.

In the wake of the shooting on Jan. 14 —  a week after an ICE agent fatally shot Renee Good in Minneapolis — the Trump administration said the man who was shot, Julio Cesar Sosa-Selis, attacked a federal law enforcement officer with a “shovel or a broom stick” and that the incident was part of “an attempt to evade arrest and obstruct law enforcement.”

Lawyers for another man charged in the incident, Alfredo Aljorna, said surveillance videos did not corroborate the FBI’s claims that an agent was assaulted and said Sosa-Celis was shot while standing at his doorway some distance away from the officer.

Earlier this month attorneys for Aljorna also urged a judge to prohibit the government from deporting key witnesses who they said cast doubt that an agent was repeatedly struck with a broom or a snow shovel, Judge Paul Magnuson granted the request.

The reversal on the assault charges for Sosa-Celis and Aljorna comes after several discrepancies emerged between statements from Department of Homeland Security officials and details outlined in court records regarding their arrests.  

DHS initially said in statements to media that officers were conducting a “targeted traffic stop” for Sosa-Celis when he fled in his vehicle, crashed into another car and attempted to evade arrest. The agency alleged that Sosa-Celis “violently” assaulted an officer and that two other individuals exited a nearby apartment and joined the attack “with a snow shovel and broom handle.”

According to DHS, Sosa-Celis struck the officer with “a shovel or broom stick,” prompting the officer to fire what the agency described as a defensive shot “to defend his life,” striking Sosa-Celis in the leg.

However, an affidavit from FBI Special Agent Timothy Schanz, who investigated the shooting, stated that ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations agents were attempting to stop a different man identified as Joffre Stalin Paucar Barrera — not Sosa-Celis — whom they believed was in the country illegally. According to Schanz, agents later identified the driver DHS agents stopped as a different man, Aljorna.

Schanz wrote that Aljorna struck a light pole and fled on foot toward his apartment building.

Sosa-Celis was allegedly standing on the porch and yelling at Aljorna to run faster, the affidavit says. Aljorna slipped and allegedly “began tussling” with the agent before Sosa-Celis grabbed a broom and began striking the agent, according to the affidavit.

The agent “then saw who he believed was a third Hispanic male approach with a snow shovel, and this male also began striking” him, Schanz said in the affidavit. The third man was identified as Gabriel Alejandro Hernandez-Ledezma by DHS, who accused him of also assaulting the officer.

Sosa-Celis was shot in the leg as he attempted to go inside the apartment, the affidavit says.

Video reviewed by ABC News’ Visual Verification team includes a 911 call from individuals identified as relatives of Sosa-Celis, who said agents fired as he was attempting to close the door.

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(FAIRFAX, Va.) — Brazilian au pair Juliana Peres Magalhães, who went along with former IRS agent Brendan Banfield in a northern Virginia double murder plot, was sentenced to to 10 years in prison with two years of probation.  

On Friday morning, Fairfax County Judge Penney Azcarate decided to give the 25-year-old the maximum sentence, which was up to 10 years on a manslaughter charge for which she pleaded guilty in 2024.

“Your actions were deliberate, self-serving, and demonstrated a profound disregard for human life,” Azcarate said in delivering her ruling. “So, let’s get straight: You do not deserve anything other than incarceration and a life of reflection on what you have done to the victim and this family.”

A new “20/20” episode about the case, “The Au Pair, The Affair and Murder” is scheduled to air Friday, Feb. 20, at 9 p.m. ET on ABC and streaming the next day on Disney+ and Hulu. 

Magalhães and Banfield were separately arrested over their roles in the Feb. 24, 2023, murders of Joseph Ryan and Banfield’s wife, Christine Banfield, which were committed inside the Banfield home.

Early in the investigation, detectives discovered evidence suggesting that Banfield and Magalhães were having an affair — and that they had plotted to kill his 37-year-old wife.  

Part of that plot, according to prosecutors and Magalhães’ testimony, involved covertly creating a profile for, and thus masquerading as, Christine on a social media site for sexual fetishes.

Ryan, 39, took the bait in what prosecutors called the “catfishing” scheme. Ryan communicated back and forth with the profile account that was allegedly posing as Christine, as they together crafted a rape fantasy scenario using a knife, chains and rope.  

“I have caused pain that cannot be measured. I pray for forgiveness from the Benson family, and from the Joseph Ryan family,” Magalhães said during Friday’s sentencing hearing.

“There is nothing I could possibly do to make it up to you, for your loss. There are so many regrets, this is my biggest. It’s a tragedy I have been carrying with me, and I know I can never take back the devastation of what I have done,” she added.

Saying she lost herself in the relationship with Banfield, she has changed in jail over the past three years.

At the time, Magalhães and Banfield told police they came home to find Ryan — a stranger to them — stabbing Christine Banfield to death. Banfield and Magalhães each fired a shot, killing Ryan, they said both in their 911 call and to responding officers at the scene.  

In October 2023, Magalhães was charged with the second-degree murder of Ryan, as she had admitted to firing the second, fatal shot.  

One year later, Magalhães took a plea deal with prosecutors, turning on Banfield in exchange for a lesser charge of manslaughter. Prosecutors also promised to recommend to the judge upon sentencing that Magalhães only get time served.  

With that agreement, Magalhães sat for nearly four hours of interviews with prosecutors, largely confirming the theory detectives had developed about their scheme.  

Magalhães also took the stand in the trial against Banfield in January, as he maintained his innocence. During his three-week-long trial, Banfield even took the stand, testifying in his own defense.  

After two days — nearly nine hours total — of deliberations in the trial, the jury reached a verdict on Feb. 2. The jury found Banfield guilty on all four counts, which included two counts of aggravated murder, one count of child endangerment, and possession of a firearm in commission of a felony.   

Family and friends of Christine Banfield and Joseph Ryan filled the courtroom Friday morning for Magalhães’ sentencing.  

Joining remotely online from Florida, Ryan’s mother, Deirdre Fisher, delivered her victim impact statement. She said her son was born two days before Christmas, making it a special holiday for them. Since Ryan’s murder, she has not been able to take down her Christmas tree, which sits behind the urn holding her son’s ashes.  

“I say good morning to him each day when I turn on the tree’s lights, and I tell him I love him each night when I turn off the lights,” Fisher told the court. 

Fisher said she has missed so many milestones now, including the chance to be a grandmother. There have been many times, Fisher said, when she’s reached for the phone to call her son, only to remember that he can’t and won’t answer.  

Ryan’s aunt, Sangeeta Ryan, delivered her impact statement from the courtroom, pausing periodically between sobs.

“He was fun-loving and loved from the beginning. He was inquisitive, curious, smart, charming, and so dang talkative,” she said.

Ryan’s aunt described her nephew’s love for animals and the environment, noting that he often rescued and adopted dogs.

Sangeeta Ryan, added that he also was a dedicated member of their family, especially in taking care of his grandmother, who, she said, sold her home in wake of Ryan’s murder to “dodge memories, grief, and reporters.”

Acknowledging that Magalhães did eventually come forward with the truth, Sangeeta Ryan said that this still was not an act of heroism on Magalhães’ part.

“This could have been a very different ending where Juliana saved two lives,” she said could have been the case if Magalhães had not gone along with Banfield’s plot.

As Magalhães was charged only in Ryan’s murder, Judge Azcarate ruled that prosecutors could not include victim impact statements that Christine Banfield’s family members had prepared.

The death penalty was abolished in Virginia in 2021, meaning that, following his conviction, Banfield is facing life in prison without parole.  

His sentencing hearing is set for May 8. 

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(WASHINGTON) — More than two dozen Senate Democrats are launching an independent investigation into the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency over a rule change on how the agency calculates the health benefits from curbing air pollution.

The EPA wrote in its regulatory impact analysis last month that it would no longer apply a dollar value to the health benefits that result from its regulations for fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and ozone because the agency says there’s too much uncertainty in the estimates. In the past, the EPA calculated a dollar value based on the health benefits of reducing air pollution, which included the number of premature deaths and illnesses avoided, such as asthma attacks.

The senators described the new policy as “irrational” and said it will lead to the EPA rejecting actions that would impose “relatively minor costs” on polluting industries that could result in “massive benefits” to public health, according to a letter sent to the EPA on Thursday and obtained by ABC News.

“The only beneficiaries will be polluting industries, many of which are among President Trump’s largest donors,” the senators wrote.

Led by Senate Committee on Environment & Public Works Ranking Member Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., the senators are requesting documents and information about how EPA made this determination by Feb. 26.

The decision to not quantify the health benefits of environmental regulations is “completely unsupported” and “a very stark departure” from the way the EPA has worked under both Republican and Democratic administrations over the last several decades, said Richard L. Revesz, dean emeritus at the New York University School of Law who specializes in environmental and regulatory law and policy.

The regulatory impact analysis does not cite any science or economics and did not allow for public comments, Revesz told ABC News. The approach was also not submitted to the EPA’s Science Advisory Board, “which is standard,” nor was it submitted for peer review, he added.

“Each of those things are necessary elements for changing scientific policies like this, and EPA violated every single one of them,” Revesz said.

Senate democrats are seeking the basis on which the EPA made the decision; what the EPA willl take into account when undertaking Clean Air Act rulemaking; whether the EPA has discussed ceasing to quantify health effects of other pollutants; and whether the EPA consulted with any third parties, including the Secretary of Health and Human Services, the U.S. Surgeon General, public health experts and interested civil society groups.

It was industry executives who pushed for benefit-cost analysis during Ronald Reagan’s administration in the 1980s, said Janet McCabe, visiting professor at Indiana University’s McKinney School of Law and former deputy administrator of the EPA between 2021 and 2024. In 1993, President Bill Clinton signed Executive Order 12866, which instructs each agency to perform rigorous cost benefit analysis for any rule or regulation to be implemented.

“There’s a whole field of environmental economics where models and analytical methods and data collection have evolved on both the cost and the benefit side to help decision-makers and the public understand,” McCabe told ABC News.

While the EPA points to uncertainties in the estimates, assigning a number to monetize health benefits is “very defensible” because of the vast number of studies that allow economists to estimate ranges of health impacts in terms of monetary value, McCabe said.

In the past, when the EPA felt like it could not rigorously assign a number to either cost or health benefit, “it would say so,” McCabe said.

The EPA has received the letter and will respond through the proper channels, an EPA spokesperson told ABC News.

PM2.5 and ozone — soot and smog — are two of the most dangerous and widespread pollutants in the U.S., according to health and environmental policy experts. They are produced by a number of sources, including emissions from vehicles, power plants, the agriculture industry and oil refineries.

The agency is still considering the impacts that fine particulate matter and ozone emissions have on human health, like it “always has,” but that it will not be monetizing the impacts “at this time,” an EPA spokesperson told ABC News last month.

“EPA is fully committed to its core mission of protecting human health and the environment by relying on gold standard science, not the approval of so-called environmental groups that are funded by far-left activists,” the EPA spokesperson said.

The new EPA rule could prove dangerous to human health in the future because it will make it easier for the Trump administration to weaken air pollution controls, the experts who spoke with ABC News said. The EPA will only have the cost to industry to consider when making policy decisions without factoring in the benefits to health, the experts said.

“There will be nothing on the health side to balance them,” McCabe said. “That will make rules much easier to justify from a cost benefit perspective, because all you will see is the costs.”

In its regulatory impact analysis published in January 2024, the EPA calculated the benefit avoided morbidities and premature death in the year 2032 as worth between $22 billion and $46 billion. In February 2024, when the EPA tightened the amount of PM2.5 that could be emitted by industrial facilities, it estimated that the rule would prevent up to 4,500 premature deaths by 2032.

This data will no longer be considered under the new rule.

“It’s not even estimating how many deaths that is, even though the models for doing both things have been very well established for a long, long time,” Revesz said.

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(DALLAS) — Police are looking for a missing Texas college student, calling it a “matter of concern.”

Brianna Arango, 21, a student at Southern Methodist University, was last seen midday Thursday on the Dallas campus, according to police.

She was last seen around 12:30 p.m. near Harold Simmons Hall, according to the Southern Methodist University Police Department.

A family member contacted SMU Police at approximately 3:30 p.m. Thursday to report that Arango did not meet with them as planned earlier that afternoon, campus police said. She had a class at 1 p.m. that she also did not attend, police said.

“Based on the information available, SMU Police are actively working to locate Brianna and are treating this as a matter of concern,” the department said in an advisory. 

“SMU Police are asking for the campus community’s assistance in locating her,” the advisory added.

Arango was last seen wearing a white shirt, blue sweatpants and carrying a beige tote bag, police said.

Anyone with information on her whereabouts is asked to contact SMU Police at 214-768-3388.

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(DEDHAM, Mass.) — New England Patriots wide receiver Stefon Diggs was arraigned on charges of strangulation Friday morning.

The charges stem from a December 2025 incident in which he allegedly assaulted a private chef. 

Diggs did not speak at the hearing, but his attorney entered a not guilty plea on his behalf. 

The judge released him on his own recognizance and he was ordered to have no contact with the victim, including third party contact. 

The incident stemmed from a dispute over wages the victim was requesting Diggs pay her, according to police records obtained by ABC News.  

Diggs is accused of strangling or suffocating Mila Adams on Dec. 2, according to police records. 

Diggs allegedly entered Adams’ unlocked bedroom, where they began to discuss the unpaid wages. Adams told police that during the discussion, he got angry and allegedly smacked her across the face, according to a police report.

She then tried to push him away, but then he choked her using the crook of his elbow around her neck. As she tried to pry him away, he tightened his grip, Adams told police. He then threw her on the bed, according to a police report. 

When she told him she still hadn’t received her money, Diggs allegedly told her “lies,” according to the police report.

“Stefon Diggs categorically denies these allegations. They are unsubstantiated, uncorroborated, and were never investigated — because they did not occur,” Diggs’ attorney David Meier said in a statement in December. “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. Stefon looks forward to establishing the truth in a court of law.”

Adams told police she believes she is still owed a month of wages, according to police records. 

The next court hearing was set for April 1, 2026. 

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