Pitt freshman basketball player Dior Johnson pleaded guilty Friday to two misdemeanors and received one year of probation for a domestic violent incident from Sept. 5.
Johnson pleaded guilty to charges of simple assault and strangulation. The strangulation charge originally had been a felony but was reduced to a misdemeanor in his plea deal. He also had previously been charged with felony aggravated assault, unlawful restraint and false imprisonment, but those charges were dismissed in October.
Prosecutors had sought two years' probation for Johnson, but he received one.
“He did hurt the victim in multiple ways,” Deputy District Attorney Mike Sullivan said, per the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. “I think the seriousness of the event warrants two years’ probation.”
Johnson has been suspended indefinitely from the Pitt basketball team. It's unclear if he will be reinstated to the team after this plea deal.
The university released the following statement Friday:
“Pitt continues to follow University and athletic department protocols regarding Dior Johnson’s suspension. All parties continue to work through the process and will not comment until additional steps have been completed.”
The incident involved Johnson and a woman he's known for several years, according to the Tribune-Review.
From our original story Oct. 8:
Police say the victim gave a written statement via email. The statement says that Johnson was angry at the woman for getting his phone wet, and he slapped her across the face with "full force." Police also said that Johnson left the apartment around midnight with her phone and returned around 4 a.m. to return it.
The complaint also said the woman was trying to leave the apartment after an argument started around 8:30 a.m., but Johnson wouldn't allow her to leave. The argument later turned and Johnson, per the complaint, "got violent and repeatedly punched (her) in her arms, stomach, and head multiple times."
The complaint continues to note that the woman tried to call 911, but Johnson ran at her with a scissors, took the phone, and hung it up.
The complaint goes on, saying Johnson "continued to hit her multiple times in the arms, head and stomach making her throw up twice. Johnson attempted to call off from practice (it should be noted that Johnson is a basketball player on the University of Pittsburgh basketball team) because he did not want to leave her alone for fear that she would leave the apartment and call 911."
Police also say that she was treated at a nearby hospital for bruises and a concussion.
Johnson, 18, is a freshman from Southern California Academy and a native of Kingston, N.Y. He was a 4-star recruit who was rated the No. 35 prospect in the nation by ESPN.
He is the highest-rated recruit Jeff Capel has signed during his Pitt tenure, and the program's highest rated since Stephen Adams in 2012.
Here's a look at his basketball background and winding recruiting path, from ESPN:
Johnson has been a nationally-known recruit since setting varsity scoring records in the state of New York as a seventh- and eighth-grader. He bounced around to several different high schools, starting at Saugerties (New York) where he grew up and including stops at national powerhouses IMG Academy (Florida), Findlay Prep (Nevada) and Oak Hill Academy (Virginia) as well as four high schools in California before ending up at Southern California Academy (California).
He initially committed in 2020 to play college basketball at Syracuse, but decommitted and chose Oregon -- before decommitting again last spring and ultimately choosing Pittsburgh. He finished his high school career ranked No. 38 in the ESPN 100.
"Deep down I'm a young man that loves this game of basketball and it's allowed me to do so much early in my career," Johnson told ESPN when he committed to Pitt. "I also understand that to put myself in the best position possible, you need to be led by truth-worthy, high character men and Jeff Capel is that."
Capel had this to say when our Corey Crisan asked about Johnson at ACC media day Oct. 12:
“It's in the law now, so there's nothing else that we can say about that, any of us, any guy on the team, myself, anyone associated with our program. We put out a statement, and that's the statement that we'll go with. You know, I feel for him, but we're good. As a program, we're good. We're in a good space. We're good."
