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Southern University <br> Law Center in ([[Baton Rouge]]​)|religion=[[Christian]]|spouse=Name of spouse missing<br>|children=Hannah Craig'''Parents''':<br>Norman Dale and Suzanne Owens Craig}}

In the 2008 election, Craig waged an unexpected challenge to the twenty-year [[incumbent]] [[Democratic Party|Democratic]] judge, [[Dewey Burchett|Dewey E. Burchett, Jr.]], of Benton and narrowly defeated him, 12,182 votes (51 percent) to 11,683 (49 percent). Craig hence prevailed by fewer than four hundred votes.<ref>Louisiana Secretary of State, Election Returns, October 4, 2008.</ref> Incumbent judges are rarely challenged in northwestern Louisiana, particularly in a controversial campaign like this one. Craig called Burchett a "[[liberal]]" and cited cases in which he claimed the judge had rendered too lenient sentences. Burchett questioned a tax lien filed against Craig by the [[Internal Revenue Service]] and issues relating to Craig's [[divorce]]. He was sworn into office by then Minden City Judge Cecil Campbell, II, with ceremonies in the Bossier Parish Courthouse.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ktbs.com/story/22340248/craig-defeats-incumbent-bossier-webster-judge|title=Craig defeats incumbent Bossier-Webster judge|publisher=KTBS-TV([[ABC]] in [[Shreveport]])|date=October 5, 2008|accessdate=May 29, 2020}}</ref>

After the campaign against Burchett, the Louisiana Board of Ethics censured]] Craig for violation of the campaign finance reporting law. The board found that Craig "unknowingly" reported a $34,000 loan far beyond the $2,500 limit from his father, Norman Dale Craig (born August 1939) of Bossier City. The board said that Craig admitted the violation and "acted immediately" to remedy the situation. He was not fined but reprimanded through publication of the board opinion.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ktbs.com/story/22348255/state-ethics-board-censures-bossier-judge|title=State Ethics Board Censures Bossier Judge|publisher=KTBS-TV ([[ABC]] in [[Shreveport]])|accessdate=July 20May 29, 20152020}}</ref>

Like his fellow Judges [[Mike Nerren]], [[Parker Self]], and Jeff Cox, all of Bossier Parish, Craig was unopposed for his second six-year term in the primary for judge held on November 4, 2014, in conjunction with the mid-term congressional elections nationwide. So were two other Republican judicial candidates, [[Charles Jacobs]] of Springhill in northern Webster Parish and former state Representative [[Jeff R. Thompson]] of Bossier City.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/news/local/2014/08/20/desoto-da-minden-mayor-candidates-qualify/14331543/|title=Final day of qualifying in DeSoto, Webster|author=Vickie Welborn|publisher=''The Shreveport Times]]''|date=August 20, 2014|accessdate=August 22May 29, 20142020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://bossierpress.com/candidates-for-november-election-in-bossier-parish/|title=Candidates for November election in Bossier Parish|publisher=''The Bossier Press-Tribune''|author=Sean Green|date=August 26, 2014|accessdate=July 20May 29, 20152020}}</ref>

Until Craig was the judge of the Bossier Parish Drug Court until 2015, when he was replaced by colleague Mike Nerren, Craig had been the judge of the Bossier Parish Drug Court. Sixteen clients graduated from the anti-addiction program in November 2014.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ladcp.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/LADCP-45.pdf|title="Bossier City Courts|page=4|publisher=Court," Louisiana Association of Drug Court Professionals|date=, February 2015|accessdate=July 20, 2015}}.</ref>

Elected on a pledge of stiffer sentences, Judge Craig in 2009 gave the defendant Randall Wayne Rockett twenty-five years at hard labor for causing an automobile accident while under the use of [[alcohol]]. It was Rockett's fourth such offense. The defendant pleaded guilty to avoid habitual offender status. Judge Craig found Rockett to be a danger to himself as well as the public. The appeals court upheld the sentence in 2011 as "neither disproportionate nor shocking to the sense of justice."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.law.justia.com/cases/louisiana/second-circuit-court-of-appeal/2011/46-404-ka-1.html|title=Appeal of State of Louisiana v. Randall Wayne Rockett|date=2011|publisher=law.justia.com|accessdate=July 20May 29, 20152020}}</ref>

In 2012, Judge Craig and his colleague Jeff Cox and several other court officials were defendants in an unusual suit for unspecified [[grievance]]s brought by Gary Anthony Bailey, a prisoner in the Bossier Parish minimum security prison in Plain Dealing, before the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana in Shreveport. Bailey sought a change of venue on grounds that he was suing his captors and could not expect a fair trial at the district court level. The federal court, however, stood with Bossier Parish officials and the matter of original jurisdiction: "Contrary to petitioner's mistaken belief, this court holds no supervisory power over state judicial proceedings and may intervene only to correct errors of constitutional dimensions."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://leagle.com/decision/In%20FDCO%2020121001361/BAILEY%20v.%20JOHNSTON|title=Bailev v. Johnston et al|publisher=leagle.com|accessdate=July 20May 29, 20152020}}</ref>

Judge Craig's decision for the defendant in ''Petchak v. The Bossier Parish Police Jury'' was overturned in 2010 by the state appeals court. Steve and Melanie Petchak sued the police jury, the parish governing board, regarding drainage, structural problems, and a sinkhole which developed on their residential property in Country Place subdivision. While Craig found no public liability on the part of the police jury in part because of a two-year statute of limitations in such matters, the appeals court sided with the [[plaintiff]]s and ordered the case remanded to Judge Craig, who was instructed to direct the police jury to make repairs to the couple's property and to pay undetermined damages. The appeals court said that the police jury had followed its statutory authority to maintain drainage on three previous occasions by filling the sinkholes reported by a previous owner and then the Petchaks. Because the police jury accepted the subdivision plat and then undertook to correct the drainage-related problems, the court held that the police jury assumed the responsibility for the defective drainage.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://casetext.com/case/petchak-v-bossier-parish-police-jury-45705-laapp-2-cir-112410|title=Petchak v. Bossier Parish Police Jury|publisher=casetext.com|date=November 24, 2010|accessdate=July 20May 29, 20152020}}</ref>

In 2015, Judge Craig ordered the reinstatement of a Minden municipal police officer, Timothy Martin "Tim" Morris (born June 1971), who had run against the chief, Steven Wayne Cropper (born December 1952),<ref>{{cite web|url=https://voterportal.sos.la.gov/Home/Home?uid=3398292|title=Steven Cropper, December 1952|publisher=Louisiana Secretary of State|accessdate=July 20, 2015}}</ref> in the nonpartisan blanket primary held on November 4, 2014. Cropper polled more than 80 percent of the ballots cast; both candidates ran as [[Independent voter||IndependentIndependents]]s.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://staticresults.sos.la.gov/11042014/11042014_60.html|title=Louisiana Secretary of State, Election Results|date=Returns (Bossier Parish), November 4, 2014|publisher=Louisiana Secretary of State|accessdate=July 20, 2015}}.</ref> Craig said that the termination of Morris in 2013 was too stiff of a punishment for the charge leveled against him: that he had violated policy regarding a case involving missing children. The Minden City Council had upheld the termination by a 4-1 vote. Morris claimed that he was terminated without a proper investigation and that the appeals process was biased against him.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://press-herald.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/3262015paper.pdf|title=Judge reverses officer's firing|author=Bonnie Culverhouse|publisher=''[[Minden Press-Herald]]''|date=March 26, 2015|pages=1, 3|accessdate=May 29, 2020}}</ref>

Judge Craig heard a longstanding case stemming from the M6 artillery propellant explosion that occurred in 2012 at Camp Minden near the Bossier/Webster parish line. David Alan Smith of Winchester, [[Kentucky]], and David Fincher of Burns, [[Tennessee]], the owners of Explo Systems, Inc., faced ten charges, including reckless use of explosives stemming from their having left behind seven thousand tons of propellant at Camp Minden. Through their attorney, Smith and Fincher petitioned Judge Craig to throw out the charges on the premise that state law does not classify the propellant as an explosive.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://press-herald.com/explo-systems-inc-owners-ask-state-judge-to-toss-charges/|title=Explo Systems Inc. owners ask state judge to toss charges|date=June 2, 2015|publisher=''Minden Press-Herald''|accessdate=May 29, 2020}}</ref> As the case developed, however, Judge Craig accepted a guilty plea from two Explo officers, who admitted to failure to mark explosive material in a proper fashion. Craig gave David Smith to fifty-five months imprisonment at hard labor and a $1,500 fine plus court costs. The company vice president of operations, William Terry Wright of Bossier City, was sentenced to sixty months at hard labor and the same fine and court costs that Smith received. Smith and Wright also faced similar sentencing in federal court for participating in a criminal conspiracy regarding to circumstances leading to the explosion. The federal case held that the defendants conspired from January 2010 to November 2012 to defraud the United States by submitting false certificates to the [[United States Army]], transporting hazardous wastes to unauthorized facilities, and improperly storage of the explosives. The 2018 court ruling did not mention the other owner of Explo Systems, David Fincher, who had also faced charges.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://bossierpress.com/explo-officials-plead-guilty-to-improperly-storing-explosive-materials/|title=Explo officials plead guilty to improperly storing explosive materials at Camp Minden|publisher=''The Bossier Press-Tribune''|date=December 18, 2018|author=Sean Green|accessdate=May 29, 2020}}</ref>