DURHAM - A Durham County Democratic Party official was charged Wednesday as an accessory in a sexual assault case that includes allegations that a couple held a man captive in a dog cage.

A prosecutor has said that the case may have involved Satan worship, but a defense attorney for one of the three people charged said it seemed to be consensual sadomasochism gone awry.

Diana Palmer, first vice chairwoman of the Durham County Democratic Party, was jailed Wednesday afternoon on charges of being an accessory after the fact of an assault with a deadly weapon. Investigators say she removed possible evidence from the home of Joy Suzanne Johnson, who had been the party's third vice chairwoman, and her husband, Joseph Scott Craig.

Police say that Johnson, 30, stood by as Craig, 25, beat and caged a man and sexually assaulted a woman in their home. A prosecutor said this week that satanic worship was part of the case.

Since the allegations broke last week, Durham Democrats have been agape. Party leaders used to debating the economy, the Iraq war and other issues of the 2008 elections have been pushed back on their heels.

"The Durham Democratic Party is a volunteer organization," said Kevin Farmer, chairman of the organization. "I'm not a professional. I'm not equipped to deal with this. I bake bread for a living."

A probable cause hearing for the couple is set for Monday in the Durham courthouse. Investigators could be asked to reveal details of their case.

Craig, a dispatcher at Allied Waste Industries, has been charged with second-degree rape, second-degree forcible sexual offense, three counts of second-degree kidnapping and two counts of assault with a deadly weapon.

The two people he is accused of assaulting listed 2305 Albany St., the home of Craig and Johnson, as their address, according to court documents.

The News & Observer generally does not identify people who report sex crimes.

Two charges of aiding and abetting filed against Johnson on Tuesday revealed details of what police claim happened.

The warrants accuse Johnson of "instigating and encouraging" her husband as he handcuffed a man and forced him "into a dog cage, leaving him there for hours, terrorizing him."

Johnson also faces two other counts of aiding and abetting.

"It sure seems to look like sadomasochism or some kind of consensual activity that maybe went too far," said Woody Vann, the Durham lawyer appointed to represent Craig. "While it may not be normal activity for our everyday population, that doesn't mean it's criminal."

Jan Paul, an assistant district attorney, declined to comment on the evidence.

Atheistic religion

The criminal accusations upset leaders of the Church of Satan, founded in San Francisco in 1966. A church representative Wednesday distanced the group from the accused, saying neither Craig nor Johnson is a member.

A church Web site lists the nine satanic sins as stupidity, pretentiousness, solipsism, self-deceit, herd conformity, lack of perspective, forgetfulness of past orthodoxies, counterproductive pride and lack of aesthetics.

"Essentially we're an atheistic religion that uses Satan as a metaphor ... in the Miltonian sense," Magistra Ygraine Mitchell, an administrator in the church, said. "When people break the law in the name of Satan or the devil, we get very angry."

The church does not condone illegal acts. "We police our own and do not indulge in the irresponsible Christian notion of forgiveness," Mitchell said in an e-mail statement.

Without any details of the case other than those provided in news reports, Church of Satan administrators have a theory about what happened.

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