Couple gets probation in case linked to Satanism

Durham, N.C. — A Durham couple whose crimes were linked to Satan worship pleaded to misdemeanor charges and will serve probation, a defense attorney said.
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Joseph Scott Craig, his wife, Joy Johnson, 30, and Dianna Palmer, 44, of Cottage Woods Court, were charged last year 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.

The case against Palmer was dismissed in January.
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Prosecutors said the victims met Craig through a shared interest in Satan worship, but that they never consented to physical abuse.
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Pair’s pleas end sex assault case

A 2008 Durham case marked by sensational accounts of Satanism and sadomasochism appears to have wound to a close with best-interest misdemeanor pleas by a man first charged with rape and kidnapping, and by a woman charged with letting those crimes happen.
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Durham defense attorney Woody Vann said the pleas were entered and approved Nov. 17 in Superior Court. 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,” 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.”
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