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

DURHAM, N.C., July 1 (UPI) -- A Durham, N.C., Democratic official and her husband face criminal charges in connection with alleged satanic rituals. Joy Johnson, 30, a third vice-chairwoman of the Durham County Democratic Party and vice chairwoman of the Young Democrats, was charged Friday with two counts of aiding and abetting. Her husband, Joseph Scott Craig, 25, was charged with second-degree rape, second-degree kidnapping and two counts of assault with a deadly weapon for incidents in January and May, the Raleigh News & Observer reported Tuesday. Mark McCullough, an assistant district attorney ...acknowledged that "part of the allegations are...

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

DURHAM - A husband and wife face more charges in a case that contains allegations of sexual assault and satanic rituals that include shackling, caging and depriving a man of food and water. Joseph Scott Craig, 25, and Joy Suzanne Johnson, 30, both of 2305 Albany St., are scheduled to appear in Durham County court this morning on the new charges in a case that has shocked acquaintances and former co-workers of the couple. Johnson resigned this week as third vice chairwoman of the Durham County Democratic Party and vice chairwoman of the Young Democrats. The charges stem from accusations...

DURHAM - A Durham County Democratic Party official was charged Wednesday as an accessory in a sexual assault case that includes allegations that a couple held a man captive in a dog cage. Since the allegations broke last week, Durham Democrats have been agape. Party leaders used to debating the economy, the Iraq war and other issues of the 2008 elections have been pushed back on their heels.

Another Democratic official charged in satanist sex crimes By Ray Gronberg : The Herald-Sun DURHAM -- Police say they've arrested and charged a third person in connection with an ongoing rape and kidnapping investigation. Diana Palmer, 44, is charged with being an accessory after the fact, Durham Police Department spokeswoman Kammie Michael said Wednesday afternoon. Palmer is first vice chairwoman of the Durham County Democratic Party. Her arrest came five days after police arrested the party's third vice chairwoman, Joy Johnson, 30, and Johnson's husband, Joseph Scott Craig, 25. Craig faces three counts of second-degree kidnapping, one count of second-degree...

The North Carolina case of an alleged satanic torture involving a Democratic Party official and her husband has now expanded to include a third suspect, an even higher-ranking Democrat. Diana Palmer, the first vice-chairwoman of the Durham County Democratic Party, joins her political colleague Joy Johnson, the third vice-chairwoman of the party, and Johnson's spouse, Joseph Craig, in facing charges. Palmer, 44, surrendered to police in Durham, N.C., this afternoon and was charged with being an accessory after the fact of assault with a deadly weapon. She's being held at the Durham County Jail under $95,000 bail. Additional charges were...