Suspended Pitt basketball player accused of assaulting woman to stand trial on 2 counts

A highly touted Pitt basketball player will go to trial on two counts — strangulation and simple assault — after three other counts against him were thrown out.

Dior Johnson, 18, of Oakland, appeared for a preliminary hearing before Magisterial District Judge Mik Pappas on Thursday. He testified briefly to authenticate a video from the day of the alleged assault.

At the conclusion of the proceedings, Pappas threw out three charges: aggravated assault, unlawful restraint and false imprisonment.

“I know my client was disappointed in the remaining charges being held for court, but those will have to be addressed in another forum,” said defense attorney Robert Del Greco.

Johnson, who Pitt officials said has been suspended from the team indefinitely, was charged earlier this month after police said he assaulted a woman at his apartment on Sept. 5 and again the next morning after he became angry that she got his cellphone wet, police said.

The woman told police Johnson slapped her face with “full force,” then left the apartment with her cellphone.

Johnson returned the next morning and argued with the woman, according to a criminal complaint filed in the case. Police said Johnson punched the woman multiple times and, when she tried to leave, she told police that he wouldn’t let her.

The woman told police she tried to call 911, but Johnson hung up the phone and chased her with scissors, eventually pushing her head into a bed.

Johnson also began cutting his own arm with the scissors and told the woman that if the police came, they would think she had hurt him, the complaint said.

The woman was able to leave the apartment and seek medical attention after Johnson left, police said.

The alleged victim testified via video during Thursday’s hearing.

Johnson also testified, but only to authenticate a video he recorded the day of the alleged assault. In the video, Del Greco said, Johnson and the woman can be seen arguing.

“The video challenges the notion she was falsely imprisoned, unlawfully restrained or injured as she said she was,” Del Greco said.

In the video, he continued, Johnson asked the woman why she was still there and told her he didn’t want her in his apartment.

“He took it that day to substantiate that they were arguing only and that he wanted her to leave,” Del Greco said.

Del Greco argued that the only count substantiated by the alleged victim’s testimony was the misdemeanor simple assault charge.

He asked Pappas to throw out the felony count of strangulation. He argued that the facts to support it — that Johnson pushed the woman’s head into a pillow, causing her to lose her breath for about five seconds — were not sufficient to justify a felony of that magnitude. Pappas disagreed.

Johnson is the prize recruit in Pitt’s 2022 class. A four-star prospect, he was competing to be a starter and was expected to be in the rotation at guard.

Rivals.com ranked Johnson 38th overall in the 2022 class, and the No. 7 point guard.