SALEM — 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. 
 
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 But that’s what happened Wednesday 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. 
 
 Dressed in head-to-toe black and adorned with rings, necklaces, and broaches, 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. 
 
 Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff Salem witch Lori Bruno-Sforza sought court-ordered protection from alleged harassment by warlock Christian Day on Wednesday. 
 
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 “I am a woman! I am not somebody’s footstool,” Bruno-Sforza yelled from the witness stand. 
 
 The phone calls were placed from a private number up to three times a week between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m., Bruno-Sforza wrote in an affidavit filed in court. 
 
 She said a friend showed her Facebook posts mocking her, including one that took aim at her predictions of volcanic eruptions. 
 
 “Mt. Etna, Europe’s most active volcano, erupts again, and yet again, some crazy bat is taking credit for it,” read one post accompanied by a picture of a witch rising over a volcano. 
 
 Bruno-Sforza was adamant about her powers. 
 
 “I’ve predicted a volcanic eruption quite a few times, including Mount St. Helens,” she testified. 
 
 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. 
 
 During his years in Salem, some considered Day to be a polarizing figure because of his business philosophy of bringing witchcraft to the masses. 
 
 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. 
 
 Day’s attorney, Paul R. Moraski, pressed Bruno-Sforza to explain why she never called police about the phone calls. He also asked whether she was a public figure and referenced another person in the spotlight to make his point. 
 
 “I’m not Donald Trump,” Bruno-Sforza said. “Wishing death on me is not a public figure thing. It came from exactly Mr. Christian Day.” 
 
 Brennan, the judge, 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. 
 
 Outside the courthouse, Day said no evidence tying him to the phone calls was presented to the judge and that he plans to appeal Brennan’s order. 
 
 “Anyone who knows me, even my haters because I’m rather well-known, will tell you that when I have something to say, I say it to your face,” he said. 
 
 Day blamed a business disagreement for the falling out between him and Bruno-Sforza. The pair had worked together at Day’s witchcraft shop in Salem, but Day said their relationship frayed during negotiations to do a television show. 
 
 “She opened a store behind my back in July 2012,” he said. “This is a business dispute and everything that she said in there about my calling her was a lie. . . I am the victim here.” 
 
 Bruno-Sforza said she came to court for justice and got it. 
 
 “In this wonderful courthouse, justice was meted out,” she said. ||||| Fortune teller Lori Bruno Sforza wins court order against New Orleans warlock who she claimed harassed her for years with internet posts and late-night calls 
 
 In a city where accused witches were once jailed and hanged, witch Lori Bruno Sforza emerged victorious from a Salem, Massachusetts, courtroom on Wednesday, proclaiming justice served for women everywhere. 
 
 Sforza, a 75-year-old fortune teller, won a court order against New Orleans warlock Christian Day whom she claimed has harassed her for years with late-night phone calls and vicious internet posts. 
 
 “He called me the C-word,” Sforza testified about the warlock she says she once treated as a son. 
 
 Wearing a long black coat and necklaces of pentacles, Sforza steadied herself with a cane topped by a silver skull. She told the judge she could see her own future and that she is afraid of Day, who she claims hissed the word on the phone and hung up multiple times. 
 
 Day, who wore a blue suit and has dark hair tinged purple, protested Judge Robert A Brennan’s decision ordering him to have no contact with the witch or face up to two and half years in prison. 
 
 “On everything that is holy, I did not make those calls,” Day said, before storming out of the courtroom and vowing an appeal. He did not testify in his own defense. 
 
 “This is a business dispute and everything she said about me is a lie,” Day said outside the courthouse. No phone records or recordings linking him to the calls were offered as evidence. 
 
 Facebook Twitter Pinterest Christian Day, right, a self-described warlock, sits with his attorney in district court on Wednesday. Photograph: Pat Greenhouse/AP 
 
 He admitted he has been ordered by other courts to stop making harassing calls to different women but said those cases were long ago. 
 
 The witch v warlock showdown occurred at time when thousands of tourists are flocking to Salem to celebrate Halloween and learn about the infamous colonial-era trials in which 20 people were accused of witchcraft and executed in the 1690s. 
 
 Day’s business ventures in Salem have long drawn criticism from some followers of wicca, or modern-day pagan witchcraft, for being too commercial. His website proclaims him “The World’s Most Famous Warlock”, and his Twitter tagline describes him as “Warlock. Drama Queen. Bitch.” 
 
 He built a business empire in Salem of witch shops and tours and launched a month-long psychic parlor where tourists have their tarot cards read while munching kettle corn. 
 
 Sforza testified the harassment began three years ago when she quit working for him and opened her own boutique called Magika on the Salem waterfront, where America’s spice trade began in the 17th century. 
 
 Two of her friends testified when the witch worked in warlock’s store, they heard him call her vulgar sexist obscenities. One man testified he confronted Day about “elder abuse” and Day retaliated by threatening to kick Sforza out. 
 
 “I am a woman. I am not somebody’s footstool,” Sforza said on the witness stand, casting a regal presence with a ruby-colored jewel pinned atop her black knit hat. 
 
 At her own store, Sforza does psychic readings and also founded a church. Her husband is a disabled Vietnam war veteran and her adult son lives with them, she said. 
 
 An ugly cartoon of her and an insulting internet posting involving her son was the final straw that propelled her into court in September seeking the order against Day. “He said my son despises me,” she told the court, explaining her son denied it. 
 
 Day said he was unable to present a strong defense because his lawyer called in sick and was “throwing up on his suit”. He asked to delay the hearing but the judge refused. 
 
 The warlock found a lawyer in the hallway to represent him and he had only two hours to prepare. 
 
 His attorney Paul R Moraski argued the matter was a business falling-out and implied Sforza might have brought the matter as a publicity stunt. He said she is a public figure, who just like GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump can be lampooned on the internet. 
 
 “I’m not Donald Trump,” Sforza shot back. 
 
 Judge Brennan said he found her testimony “heartfelt and credible”, and admonished the warlock to chose his words more carefully. 
 
 “You called her repeatedly and used a word that really no one should use toward any other person, a young woman or an elderly woman,” the judge said. 
 
 The fortune teller said she knew the judge would rule in her favor. She predicted it.
– A Salem witch has come out on top in a court battle with a warlock without the help of a single curse or spell. On Wednesday, a judge ruled New Orleans warlock Christian Day must give up all contact with 75-year-old Lori Bruno Sforza or face up to two and a half years in prison, per the Guardian. Sforza, who alleged Day was harassing her online and over the phone, said she wasn't at all surprised by the decision. After all, she's a self-described psychic and says she predicted the verdict. The judge said Sforza seemed "heartfelt and credible" as she described receiving harassing calls in the middle of the night after she quit working for Day—who runs a witch shop in Salem—and opened one of her own, per the Boston Globe. "He called me the C-word," she testified. "On everything that is holy, I did not make those calls," Day said, then stormed out of the courtroom and promised to file an appeal. Earlier, he asked the judge to delay the hearing because his lawyer was sick and "throwing up on his suit." He said he found a lawyer in a courtroom hallway, though the man had just two hours to prepare. The lawyer argued Sforza was like Donald Trump—a public figure who could be ridiculed online. The judge agreed online comments are protected speech but said he was concerned by the calls. Day later admitted he'd been ordered to stop harassing other women in the past, but said there was no evidence linking him to the calls made to Sforza. "This is a business dispute and everything she said about me is a lie," he said. "When I have something to say, I say it to your face."