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Two-time WNBA All-Star Shoni Schimmel has pleaded not guilty to charges stemming from allegations of assault against her former partner, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Friday.
The 29-year-old Schimmel faces charges of assault by strangulation of an intimate dating partner and assault resulting in substantial bodily injury. She faces a maximum sentence of 15 years in federal prison, three years’ supervised release, and a fine of $250,000.
Schimmel was arrested, arraigned and released on Friday, with a two-day jury trial scheduled for June 14, 2022, in Oregon.
According to her indictment, Schimmel is accused of strangling her partner on the Umatilla Indian Reservation, where she grew up, and further assaulting her enough to cause "substantial bodily injury" on June 13, 2021.
Schimmel has not appeared in the WNBA since 2018. The eighth overall pick out of Louisville in the 2014 WNBA draft, she was named an All-Star in her first two seasons with the Atlanta Dream and earned MVP honors in the 2014 game.
In four seasons with the Dream, New York Liberty and Las Vegas Aces, Schimmel averaged 6.6 points and 2.8 assists per game. Her upbringing and basketball career on the Umatilla Reservation was also documented in 2011's "Off the Rez."