Another Democrat Arrested in Cult Sex Case

Moving up the party ladder here. I'll assume for the time being they won't be seated as delegates at the Democrat Convention. Then again, stuff like this can be considered a resume enhancer with certain Democrats.

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.

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

Joseph Craig, 25, has been charged with kidnapping, rape, forcible sexual offense and assault in the case. His wife, Joy Johnson, 30, has been charged with aiding and abetting. Both were being held Wednesday in the Durham County Jail.

The couple was arrested last week after a man and a woman told police they were beaten, shackled to beds, kept in dog cages and starved inside a home on Albany Street. Craig is accused of committing the crimes while his wife watched.

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

Assistant Durham County District Attorney Mark McCullough said during a Monday court hearing that the two people met Craig through a shared interest in Satan worship, but they never consented to the abuse.

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 [the Church of Satan? --ed.] 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.

Reached for comment, presumptive Democrat candidate for president, Barack Obama, said Palmer is not the first vice chair of the Durham Democrat Party that he once knew.

Of course, with the arrest of a third suspect, one might think more are to follow.

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.

Yes, isolated to three party activists.

Previously.

Hope, Change, Kidnapping, Rape and Assault

All in a day's work for the budding agents of change.

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.

Resigned? Why, seems to me these charges are a resume enhancer.

More here.

Floyd McKissick, a state senator and a Democrat from Durham, said Monday he had been told Johnson had resigned her posts with the party. He, too, reserved judgment.

“I was absolutely shocked and flabbergasted,” McKissick said. “You never would have suspected allegations that she would have had any participation in these rituals.”

Johnson and Craig, along with Diana Palmer, first vice chairwoman for the local Democrats, are partners in a company called Indigo Dawn. The company’s Web site says Indigo Dawn offers products and services “to promote enlightenment and assist in the development and self-empowerment and divine potential.”

Among the services offered, according to the Web site, are “intuitive guidance, past-life regression, spirit guide communication and healing and cleansing.”

Boy, after that Mike Nifong mess, the Durham Democrats really needed some good publicity.

This isn't it.