SALEM, MASS. —Witchcraft and jurisprudence are not exactly strangers in Salem.

But even in a city that wears its ties to the 17th-century witch trials like an amulet, a courtroom duel between two self-proclaimed representatives of the occult is an unusual sight.

But that’s what happened Wednesday, Oct. 28, in Salem District Court when a 75-year-old witch priestess and psychic asked a judge to stop a man who calls himself the “world’s best-known warlock” from placing vulgar phone calls to her in the middle of the night.

“I can see into my own future. That’s why I’m here today,” said Lori Bruno-Sforza, who runs Magika, a witchcraft store in Salem. “I want to protect myself.”

She identified her tormenter as Christian Day, 45, a man whom she said she loved as a son until he turned on her three years ago. She alleged that he placed crude phone calls to her and posted messages on Facebook wishing death upon her.

She asked Judge Robert Brennan to issue a civil order to prevent Day from harassing her. Bruno-Sforza said the harassment kept her up at night, made her fear for her store, and left her wondering if she would be physically attacked. The hearing took place three days before Halloween, which Brennan called a scheduling coincidence.

“I am a woman! I am not somebody’s footstool,” Bruno-Sforza yelled from the witness stand.

Day, who is known for dressing in black and wearing dark eye makeup, came to court in a blue suit and yellow tie. He traveled to Salem from New Orleans, where he said he now lives.

Court records show he pleaded guilty in 2002 to criminal harassment and making annoying telephone calls and was sentenced to probation. Day said he is now good friends with the victim in that case.

In 2011, a judge issued a civil harassment order against Day after a Salem man alleged Day threatened him and tried to get him fired from his job, according to court records.

Brennan, the judge for Wednesday’s trial, said the comments posted to Facebook constitute protected speech, but he said he was troubled by the “frequent and consistent calls in the middle of the night.”

He issued a civil order requiring Day to refrain from harassing Bruno-Sforza for one year.

“You called her repeatedly in the middle of the night and used a word that really no one under any circumstances should use,” Brennan said.

Day did not testify in his defense, but later protested Brennan’s decision.

“On everything that is holy I did not make those calls,” Day said before he stormed out of the courtroom.

Bruno-Sforza said she came to court for justice and got it.

“In this wonderful courthouse, justice was meted out,” she said.

Source: Boston Globe