DURHAM - The woman who is accused of aiding and abetting her husband in a sexual assault case and an alleged kidnapping and cane beating persuaded a Superior Court judge Thursday to reduce bail.

Judge Orlando Hudson lowered bail to $75,000 for Joy Suzanne Johnson, 30, after the public defender assigned to her case made the third bail-reduction request in 10 days.

Johnson was jailed June 27 on allegations that she encouraged and instigated her husband, Joseph Scott Craig, 25, as he allegedly raped a 44-year-old woman and beat and caged a 19-year-old man.

The accusers, who lived with Johnson and Craig for more than six months, were in Durham District Court on Monday to recount their allegations.

The two came to Durham, they said, to study the occult. They met the couple through a Web site and moved in with them shortly after the online contact.

Although each worked outside the home and had a cell phone and access to money, both stayed with the accused until late June, long after the incidents were said to have occurred.

"The allegations make no sense," Elizabeth Curran, the public defender representing Johnson, said Thursday at the bail-reduction hearing. "There is no corroborating evidence offered. We have a female ... who was on the stand who was in therapy.

"This is the same woman who at the time she said she was being raped also said she was channeling demons," Curran added later in the hearing.

James Frederick Bethard, 19, is the accuser in the allegations of beating and kidnapping.

The woman moved from a cattle ranch in Montana, where she had worked parttime.

The News & Observer is not identifying the woman in keeping with its general policy of not identifying people who allege sex crimes.

In court earlier this week, Woody Vann, the defense lawyer representing Craig, asked whether the accusers made their allegations because they had just been kicked out of the Order of the Morning Star, the occult group. Vann said Bethard had just lost his job at a pet store and would not be able to pay the rent.

Jan Paul, the assistant district attorney assigned to the case, said Thursday that she had not decided yet how the state would proceed with the case.

"Some if not all of the charges may need to be modified," Paul said.

The prosecutor objected to having the bail hearing without the accusers present. Both testified earlier this week that they feared for their lives, that they worried the accused would either come after them or enlist someone else to harm them.

The accusers left Durham for Maryland shortly after the charges were filed.

Paul said Thursday that one of the accusers had filed a police report in May about the beatings. It is unclear whether any charges were filed as a result of that report.

Although Hudson reduced Johnson's bail from $240,000 to $75,000, Johnson would have to post at least $7,500 to be released from jail while awaiting trial.

In March, court officials set new bail recommendations to try to keep people charged with violent offenses from getting out of jail and committing more violence while awaiting trial. As a result, the jail is filled with people unable to make high bails.

"I take this very seriously," Hudson said Thursday. "I do not know what the defendant did, ... but I do not see her at this point as a person who necessarily needs to be in custody."

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