North Carolina "Satanic Panic" Case Comes to a Close

Last year I came across an odd case in the news, it centered around a New Age/Magick-practicing couple from Durham County, North Carolina. The couple, Joy Johnson (a chairwoman of the local Democratic Party) and Joseph Scott Craig, were accused of kidnapping and raping another couple under the auspices of a “Satanic ritual”.

“Prosecutors have charged three people, including two ranking members of the Durham County Democratic Party, as part of an investigation into allegations of rape and kidnapping that prosecutors said involved satanic worship … Authorities have said little about the case outside of the information included in arrest warrants, which allege that [Joseph Scott] Craig beat a man and a woman, raped the woman and that [Joy] Johnson watched as he did so. Durham County Assistant District Attorney Mark McCullough said earlier this week that charges stemmed from some sort of satanic ritual.”

From the beginning things didn’t seem quite right, lawyers for the couple insisted that what happened wasn’t rape and kidnapping, but consensual sadomasochism, and I started to wonder if the accusations were vindictive.

“Let’s deconstruct this for a moment. One couple meets another couple, allegedly through “a shared interest in Satan worship”. They then engage in, on three occasions, what sounds very much like cuckold play, a very, very common kink. The basic scenario, in short, is that a man (or woman) is restrained (mentally or physically) and “forced” to watch his (or her) partner sexually gratified by a stranger. While I’m not ruling out mental coercion, or that the final instance may have been done without consent, we may also be dealing with what sex columnist Dan Savage calls “drastic, disgusted, after-the-fact denial” (NSFW language at link).”

Despite some weird inconsistencies (like the fact that they had access to money, phones, and cars, and continued to live with the couple even after the alleged incidents), and testimony from the accusers that the four had indeed been living together and in an admitted consensual sexual relationship, a judge allowed the case to go forward.  Soon after that, the local Assistant District Attorney admitted that “some if not all of the charges may need to be modified”, and bail was subsequently lowered for both Joy Johnson and Joseph Scott Craig.

Finally, nearly a year and a half after the case began, and their lives ruined by the publicity and criminal charges, the two were convicted of misdemeanors in a plea arrangement (more here).

“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. Search warrants said the victims were a man and a woman who moved in with Craig and Johnson after they became friends through their satanic interests.”

Notice that the “Satanic” slurs continue, even after the entire case has fallen apart. The DA’s office gets a plea arrangement, most likely because the defendants didn’t have confidence in receiving a fair verdict, or the cash for a lengthy trial-and-appeal process, and the accused get an end to this ongoing nightmare.

We will most likely never know what really happened, but it almost certainly wasn’t some sort of Satanic rape-kidnapping scenario, where one of the alleged victims says she was “channeling demons” during the process. Now the accusers have almost certainly gotten what they wanted, the ruination of their former friends/lovers, and the accused have to be happy with their freedom. Whatever really happened, I doubt anyone would claim this farce to be justice.