Day 3 For Emanuel Residency Hearings
CHICAGO (CBS) -- The residency hearings on whether Rahm Emanuel meets the requirement to run for mayor enter the third day Thursday.
Objectors say Emanuel forfeited his standing to run for mayor by going to Washington, D.C., to serve as President Barack Obama's chief of staff. State law requires any candidate for mayor to live in the municipality for a year before the election in which he is running, but there are exceptions made for national service.
Their tenants claimed they did not.
Emanuel had testified that he and his wife stored 100 boxes of personal possessions, including his wife's wedding dress, locked in a storage area in the basement.
Lori Halpin, who is renting the Emanuel home with her husband Robert, claimed Wednesday that she hasn't seen hide nor hair of the boxes Emanuel said he left behind.
Storing prized possessions in locked storage areas was supposed to show Emanuel clearly intended to return from Washington, D.C., after serving at the White House. This afternoon, Lori Halpin claimed she'd searched the house from top to bottom.
Asked if any part of the basement is controlled by a lock and key, Halpin said, "No, I've never found anything that is locked in the house."
She also said she believes she's been in every area of the house since she and her husband began renting from Emanuel and she's never seen the boxes or the wedding dress that Emanuel said were locked away.
But later, an Emanuel family friend testified that she helped pack the boxes.
"On two separate occasions, I helped Amy (Rule Emanuel) sift through her basement items and some things we donated to charity -- and the things that were most valuable to her we boxed up and put it in a crawl space," testified family friend Mee Kim-Chavez.
A spokesman for Emanuel said he testified under oath that the boxes are there.
There also is a question of the Halpins' credibility. First, they allegedly lied on their lease application, then refused to move out when he wanted back in, then Rob Halpin briefly filed to run against Emanuel in the race for mayor. Now the Halpins, in essence, are claiming he's a liar.
The residency hearings resume Thursday morning, but a decision is not expected until next week.
