Woman charged in satanic ritual appears in court
DURHAM One of the suspects, former Durham democratic party leader, Joy Johnson, was in court trying to get a bond reduction.
Prosecutors say 30-year-old Johnson aided and abetted her husband in some kind of satanic ritual inside a modest Durham house. During which he hand-cuffed, chained and beat a 19-year-old man and raped a 44-year-old woman who were both living with the couple.
The judge wrestled with reducing Johnson's bail of $270,000.
Johnson has no previous criminal record, but she has been jailed since her arrest over a week ago. Her attorney asked for only a $10,000 bond.
The prosecutor argued her bond was already less than half of what it could legally be.
Johnson had served as the third vice-chair of the Durham County democratic party, but she and her husband, 25-year-old Scott Craig, had also run a Web site called Indigo Dawn, which promised enlightenment and self-empowerment.
But prosecutors say Craig at one point locked the male victim inside a dog cage. They say Johnson aided or encouraged him.
The judge did lower Johnson's bond, but not by much. She is still in jail, now on a $220,000 bond.
Her husband will try to get his $1 million bond reduced next week.