Serious charges have been filed against a member of the Pitt men’s basketball team, as Pittsburgh Sports Now has learned that multiple domestic violence charges have been filed against Pitt freshman guard Dior Johnson.
The 18-year-old Johnson has been charged with one felony count of aggravated assault, one felony count of strangulation, one misdemeanor count of unlawful restraint, one misdemeanor count of simple assault and one misdemeanor count of false imprisonment.
This alleged incident occurred on Sept. 5 and 6, but the charges were filed on Oct. 6. Johnson has not been arrested at this time. The reason for the delay is unclear.
The criminal complaint does make clear that Johnson is a member of the Pitt men’s basketball team. PSNÂ has chosen not to publish the name of the victim.
The victim alleges that on the evening of Sept. 5, Johnson became angry with her for getting him and his phone wet. He allegedly slapped her across the face, causing her face to become red and puffy.
At 8:30 a.m. the next morning, the victim said that Johnson got into a verbal argument with her, which escalated. She states that she attempted to leave the apartment, but he wouldn’t let her. The argument reportedly continued for an hour before Johnson got violent and punched her in her arms, stomach and head multiple times.
The victim says that she called 911 in fear for her life, but Johnson ran after her with scissors, took the phone, hung it up and threw it. He then grabbed her head and pushed it into the bed making it hard for her to breathe.
At that point, the victim alleges that Johnson started cutting himself with the scissors, slashing his left arm multiple times to make himself bleed in an attempt to mitigate blame for the incident.
The victim provided a screenshot of her phone call log, which showed a call to 911 on Sept. 6 at 9:20 a.m. and 4 return calls to her phone with voicemail.
The victim said that Johnson attempted to call off from Pitt basketball practice that day because he did not want to leave her alone for fear that she would leave the apartment and call 911.
The report says the victim waited until Johnson eventually left, packed her things and left the apartment to seek medical treatment. She provided detectives via email a copy of her medical discharge reports from the hospital. She received treatment for multiple bruises and a concussion. Photos showed scratches on her neck, bruising on both of her arms, her left collarbone, left shoulder and chest.
At this point, Johnson has not been arrested and no court dates have been set. Johnson has been practicing with the basketball team this week.
Johnson has been charged with aggravated assault, a first-degree felony, the most serious type of felony charge under Pennsylvania law. He could face 10 to 20 years in prison if convicted of that crime. Johnson turned 18 in January and has no criminal record in Pennsylvania.
A Pitt spokesperson has not returned repeated requests for comment.
Johnson is the third Pitt men’s basketball player to face legal issues in recent years. Forward John Hugley was charged with criminal conspiracy and receiving stolen property in January 2021 and suspended for half of the season. The felony charges against Hugely were later dropped. Guard Ithiel Horton was arrested in November 2021 for allegedly assaulting a police officer. The felony charges against Horton were also eventually dropped.
