Joy Johnson & Joseph Craig: Satan, rape, assault, oh my!

[Jaded]

Durham, N.C. — A Durham couple charged with kidnapping, rape and assault was involved with a satanic cult, a prosecutor said Monday.


Joy Johnson and Joseph Craig appeared at a bond hearing Monday. A judge set Craig's bond at $590,000, but refused a prosecution request to increase Johnson's bond from $270,000 to $500,000.

Prosecutors said a man and a woman met Craig through a shared interest in Satan worship, but the pair never consented to physical abuse.


Craig shackled his victims to beds, kept them in dog cages and starved them inside his Albany Street home, prosecutors said. He was charged with beating the man with a cane and a cord and with raping the woman.

"This goes well above what they were interested in doing," an assistant Durham County district attorney said.


Johnson, who was third vice-chair of the Durham County Democratic Party and vice-chair for the Young Democrats, was charged with two counts of aiding and abetting. Prosecutors said she knew her husband planned the crime and watched as they were committed.


She has resigned her positions with the Democratic Party, said state Sen. Floyd McKissick, D-Durham.

"She seemed to be a very open, reasonable, responsible person, but certainly, the allegations that have been made are shocking to everybody who has known her," McKissick said. "We wish her the best going through this difficult and trying time."


Johnson also resigned her position as office manager for the Durham People's Alliance.
Craig and Johnson operate a business called Indigo Dawn Inc. that is described on a Web site as a spiritual growth service offering "past life reconstruction" and "communication with spirit guides." The site talks about Johnson's activism and describes Craig as a reverend and a "devout student of magick."


One neighbor who declined to give his name came to court Monday to support the couple and held up messages behind the courtroom's glass partition.


"(They're) innocent until proven guilty," the man said.

Prosecutors said they anticipate more charges will be filed against the couple.

http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/3128703/

I'm still trying to dig up more info on this one....

[Rob Taylor]

A devil worshipping rapist Democrat. I almost had an orgasm reading this! My righty sense was tingling and now it's paid off.

Excuse me while I cobble together a good old fashioned hit piece on North Carolina Democrats!

[w8ng4msrgt]

Well you know Rush will have a picture of her tomorrow with Obama and Clinton.

[Rob Taylor]

Not that it matters but I don't think they're Satanists. Joy traveled to Iraq with a Christian Peace group pre-invasion and her website is full of new agey yoga stuff. I think the Satan stuff was tacked on by bible belters.

[petrina]

i agree with the lack of satan. you can be wiccan or whatnot and that doesnt mean satan, does it? hell idk. i am a lapsed catholic girl. those crazy biblebelters - half of them have dog cage fantasies anyways. trust me on this one.

[Jaded]

Satan worship... *sigh*
Have ya seen WWSD?? He's HAWT!! ;)

Oh wait, we're talking about another Satan, right?

I don't see why their 'affiliation' with a satanic cult was even mentioned in the article. Rape and assault have very little to do with satanic rituals....unless caning is common in those rituals lately. (I'm not satanic, so I would have no friggin clue)

Unless more info is released and there was some kind of sacrifice or at least some satanic chanting, I'm calling the satanic cult slant BS. The article was probably written by a Republican.....

[RevAnne]

From what I can tell from some internet browsing, they were def Christians, although unconventional ones.

[Mom of 4]

Satan worship... *sigh*
Have ya seen WWSD?? He's HAWT!! ;)

Oh wait, we're talking about another Satan, right?

I don't see why their 'affiliation' with a satanic cult was even mentioned in the article. Rape and assault have very little to do with satanic rituals....unless caning is common in those rituals lately. (I'm not satanic, so I would have no friggin clue)

Unless more info is released and there was some kind of sacrifice or at least some satanic chanting, I'm calling the satanic cult slant BS. The article was probably written by a Republican.....

HEHEHEHEHEHEHE I was thinking the same thing Jaded.....I worship WWSD but I'm not into dog cages, rape and caning. Nothing wrong with a little Satan worship...he's HAWT!

[TheMorningStar]

"There are allegations that at least one of the victims was chained to the bed and at least one of the victims was kept in a dog cage, we don't know what specific period of time. Also they were deprived of food and water for some time," Durham Assistant DA Mark McCullough said.
McCullough told a judge the couple appears to be involved in a satanic cult and that is how they came in contact with their victims.
Eyewitness News did some research and found a satanist who says he was once associated with the group 'Order of the Morning Star.'
In an e-mail to Eyewitness News he says the couple leads the organization under fake names and that the group worships the devil.
The former member alleges he left the OMS because it felt like a cult and they were starting to promote a herd mentality.
Worldwide he says the OMS has more than 80 followers.
A website also shows Johnson and her husband as the leaders of Indigo Dawn.
A private website on spiritual growth -- the couple sells anointing oils and herbal balms -- on the website the couple also talks about magic and the occult.
But for now prosecutors aren't commenting on the couple's ties

http://abclocal.go.com/wtvg/story?se...cal&id=6237216
This source indicates that they are married.
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/dur...y/1127587.html
Indigo Dawn website
http://www.theindigodawn.com/Indigo_Dawn/Welcome.html

I have an order!

[SoUncool]

Third arrest made in alleged cult abuse case

Durham, N.C. — Police charged a third person Wednesday in connection with beatings and rape that authorities say were carried out by a satanic cult.

Diana Palmer, 44, of Cottage Woods Court, surrendered to police Wednesday afternoon. She was charged with being an accessory after the fact of assault with a deadly weapon and was being held in the Durham County Jail.


Diane Palmer


Craig in his prison garb.


Johnson in her prison garb.

Palmer posted $30,000 bond Wednesday and was released from jail.

Police executed a search warrant at 2305 Albany St. Wednesday.

Palmer "vehemently denies" any ties to satanism or to any cult, said her attorney, William Thomas.

A woman claiming to represent the Church of Satan said Craig and Johnson aren't members and denounced the allegations against them.

"Our church is, without exception, against all illegal acts. Our dogma is clear and concise on the issue of sexual abuse and crime in general: If you do it, you can be excommunicated," Ygraine Mitchell wrote in an e-mail to WRAL.

Palmer is first vice chair of the Durham County Democratic Party. Johnson resigned her positions as third vice-chair of the Durham County Democratic Party and vice-chair of the Young Democrats following her arrest.

"Diana is extraordinarily trusting and caring. I don't think she would ever knowingly do anything wrong," county party Chairman Kevin Farmer said.

State Sen. Floyd McKissick, D-Durham, called the case "an isolated incident" and said he doesn't expect any other Democratic Party activists to be implicated.

The county party's Web site was disabled Wednesday, but Farmer said that was related to a technical problem and not the allegations against Palmer and Johnson.

[Abroad]

"Diana is extraordinarily trusting and caring. I don't think she would ever knowingly do anything wrong,"

In other words, he thinks she's stupid?





Some defence. With champions like this.......

[Mom of 4]

In other words, he thinks she's stupid?





Some defence. With champions like this.......

Gosh that's an original statement isn't it? I swear the world is full of people who live in a permanent state of denial.

[Abroad]

One hopes (in vain?) that he would have reconsidered if he had known what it would look like in print.......

[Dakota Valkyrie]

A District Court judge dismissed a charge today against Diana Palmer, the former Durham County Democratic Party official accused this summer of being an accessory in a sexual assault case.

But the case could be revived if the state Attorney General’s Office chooses to seek an indictment, a Durham prosecutor says.

Palmer, a former first vice chairwoman of the Durham County Democratic Party, was jailed in July on on a charge of being an accessory after the fact of an assault with a deadly weapon.

Investigators claimed she removed possible evidence from the home of Joy Suzanne Johnson, who had been the party's third vice chairwoman, and Johnson’s husband, Joseph Scott Craig.

Tracey Cline, Durham’s new district attorney, said earlier this month that she would ask the state Attorney General’s Office to take over the Johnson and Palmer cases to avoid the possibility of a conflict of interest.

As a Democrat who ran for office this past spring, Cline was in contact with Johnson.

Defense lawyers have described the case as “consensual sadomasochism gone awry.”

James Frederick Bethard, 19, of Maryland, accused Craig of forcing him into a dog cage with his arms and legs shackled, and beating him repeatedly with a cane.

The woman who has accused Craig of raping her testified this summer that she also engaged in consensual oral sex with the accused more than once.

http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/1386539.html

Prosecutors asked Thursday for a continuance in Palmer's case, but defense attorney Bill Thomas objected, saying the case had dragged on for more than six months.

District Judge Nancy Gordon denied the continuance, effectively dismissing the case.

It was unclear why prosecutors sought the delay, but they could revive the case if a grand jury were to indict Palmer on the accessory charge.

Because of Palmer's and Johnson's Democratic Party ties – Durham County District Attorney Tracey Cline is a Democrat – prosecutors have discussed handing the case off to the state Attorney General's Office, but they haven't made a formal request to do so, said Noelle Talley, spokeswoman for the Attorney General's Office.

Craig and Johnson operate a business called Indigo Dawn Inc. that is described on a Web site as a spiritual growth service offering "past life reconstruction" and "communication with spirit guides." The site talks about Johnson's activism and describes Craig as a reverend and a "devout student of magick."

http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/4426276/

[Dakota Valkyrie]

A North Carolina couple has been sentenced on misdemeanor charges in a case involving abusing other adults during Satan worship.

WRAL reported that 25-year-old Joseph Scott Craig and his 30-year-old wife Joy Johnson were each sentenced Friday to two 60-day suspended sentences and a year of probation.
[...]

Craig entered an Alford plea, which means he maintained his innocence but acknowledged prosecutors had enough evidence for a conviction. Johnson pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting her husband.

http://www.wral.com/news/state/story/6504134/

[...]
The action brought an apparent end to a case that included testimony that defendants and victims lived in the same house, brought together by a mutual interest in Satanism.

"The evidence doesn't support a criminal conviction," Durham defense attorney Woody Vann said Friday. "We had adults involved in consensual activities, and they didn't make any effort to report these to law enforcement until months later."
[...]

One of the couple's accusers, James Frederick Bethard, told police that Craig beat him and forced him into a dog cage, his arms and legs shackled. A female accuser said that Craig raped her. In court testimony, she said she also had consensually engaged in oral sex with Craig.

Bethard said in court testimony that he and the female accuser were told that they would be killed if they left the house. But Vann said both had jobs and connections with family members outside Durham.

"They could have packed their bags and left months earlier," he said.

http://www.newsobserver.com/news/loc...ry/214064.html

[Valasca]

Ugh, I am SO SICK of people using "satan" as a reason for their misdeeds.
REAL Satan worshippers would not do this, there is no need to. It's even in their "bible" so to speak.

1. Do not give opinions or advice unless you are asked.

2. Do not tell your troubles to others unless you are sure they want to hear them.

3. When in another’s lair, show him respect or else do not go there.

4. If a guest in your lair annoys you, treat him cruelly and without mercy.

5. Do not make sexual advances unless you are given the mating signal.

6. Do not take that which does not belong to you unless it is a burden to the other person and he cries out to be relieved.

7. Acknowledge the power of magic if you have employed it successfully to obtain your desires. If you deny the power of magic after having called upon it with success, you will lose all you have obtained.

8. Do not complain about anything to which you need not subject yourself.

9. Do not harm little children.

10. Do not kill non-human animals unless you are attacked or for your food.

11. When walking in open territory, bother no one. If someone bothers you, ask him to stop. If he does not stop, destroy him.

[TDH]

[MadeaBecBec]

4. If a guest in your lair annoys you, treat him cruelly and without mercy.

Ermmm, maybe the guests annoyed them...just sayin'....