FORT PIERRE — A 30 year-old Sioux Falls man has pleaded not guilty to charges filed in a Stanley County sexual assault case. Shadu Kawaja has pleaded not guilty to charges of First Degree Rape; Sexual Contact with a Child Under 16 and Intentional Exposure to a Venereal Disease. Kawaja’s attorney Sandy Steffen requested an evidentiary hearing in the case. Sixth Circuit Judge Margo Northrup says that hearing will be set on an off-court day for Stanley County but did not set that date. A trial date has also not been set. Kawaja was indicted by a Stanley County grand jury in June. He was arrested on the charges in late May. According to a probable cause affidavit on file in the case, the nine year-old female victim told investigators Kawaja did “bad things to me”. The affidavit indicates that during a medical evaluation of the victim it was found they had contracted gonorrhea from Kawaja. Kawaja admitted in interviews with law enforcement that he had sex with the victim. Kawaja could face life in prison if convicted on the First Degree Rape charge alone. That charge along carries a mandatory minimum of 15 years in prison. Kawaja is being held in the Hughes County Jail on a 50-thousand dollar cash bond.
