A hearing was held Tuesday, March 9, to determine if District Attorney Michael Parker would be allowed to stay on the ballot in the upcoming local election. Parker’s candidacy is being challenged on the grounds that he may not live in the three-county district.

Emotional testimony from Parker, accounts from neighbors of his Marston home and an explanation by Sheriff Dale Furr of the circumstances behind the investigation of his residency highlighted the hearing at Cole Auditorium in Hamlet.

The proceedings began at 1 p.m. with an executive session of the three-member panel hearing the case. It lasted until about 6 p.m. when the board said they would render a written decision and adjourned.

The task for Parker and his attorneys was to prove that he lives at a home he owns in the Richmond County town of Marston, instead of the farm he inherited from his parents near Vass in Moore County.

Parker’s Raleigh attorney, Gray Styers, opened his case by listing four major areas he would cover in a visual aid, listing physical residence, civic and public presence, business presence and intent.

“Mr. Parker owns property in Moore County,” Styers said. “We’re going to say that right up front. We’re going to talk about the fact that his wife’s mother still lives there, and she has responsibilities there and it is nearer to medical providers for their children. That is not the issue here.”

In his opening, Laurinburg attorney Terry Garner said his case would focus on one simple concept.

“This case is going to come down to one four-letter word - home,” Garner said. “Where is home? Where does a man go? Where does he sleep? Where does he take his meals? Where do his children go to school? Where do they participate in academic activities?

“Where is home? And I think at the end of the day, you will see in this case, pretty conclusively, home is in Moore County.”

Parker was the first witness called on his own behalf, and went through about 65 pieces of evidence, ranging from utility bills to photos of the Marston house to junk mail, one-by-one, showing each listed him as a resident of Marston.

In his cross-examination of Parker, Garner interrogated him as to his church membership, his use of electricity and water at both properties, where the family takes its holidays and where his two sons receive their home school lessons.

“Since last September, how many nights have your wife and children spent in Marston?” Garner asked Parker.

“I can’t answer that, but I can tell you that in the past one and a half to two years, probably very little,” Parker answered. “The past six months, and even the past two years, have been a very difficult time for my family.”

This line of questioning led to one of the more dramatic moments of the hearing, when under redirect examination by Styers, a teary-eyed Parker related the health issues that his sons and his in-laws have struggled with over the past two years.

“Did you abandon Moore County as your domicile when you moved to Richmond County?” Styers continued after Parker replied in the affirmative. “Did you have the intention to return to Moore County?”

“Not to live - no,” Parker said.

After Parker left the stand, several of his neighbors were called to the stand to testify about Parker’s comings and goings. Their testimonies varied to some degree, but each said they regarded him as their neighbor.

Neighbor Sandra Smith discussed her questioning by the sheriff’s office.

“I asked him (the officer) if I leave to go to work in the morning, come back in the evening and go somewhere on the weekend - do I still live there?” Smith said. “And he said, ‘Sometimes politics aren’t always fair.’ That was his exact statement.”

When Furr took the stand, he said his investigation into Parker’s residence stemmed from a meeting with Superior Court Judge Chris Collier, in which the judge brought up the possibility of bringing in the State Bureau of Investigation to investigate Parker.

“I take reference to criminal activity to the sheriff as a complaint,” Furr said, explaining the crimes in question are obtaining property by false pretense and election fraud.

He also admitted to disagreements with Parker in the past.

“Generally, for a failure to communicate with the sheriff’s department about cases, and plea-bargaining cases without consulting the law enforcement officers who made the case,” Furr said.

Furr also admitted to backing Parker’s challenger, Reece Saunders for the primary election in May and having at least three murder suspects who were arrested not prosecuted by Parker’s office.

In later testimony, a deputy admitted to knowledge of an investigation Parker opened in November into allegations of police brutality against the sheriff’s office.

“There was very little evidence about abandonment - whether or not he had abandoned that previous residence,” Garner said in closing. “I don’t believe anyone in this room believes that he has abandoned that family farm that he cherishes, that has been in the family for about 100 years. He testified himself that whenever he leaves that place, he intends to return there.”

Garner called Parker’s claim of residence in Marston a sham, to which Styers replied in his own closing that shams don’t last nine years, the time Parker has claimed to live in Richmond County.

“If Mr. Parker has been pulling a sham for nine years, he’s even a better guy than I thought he was,” Styers finished.

Richmond County Daily Journal Staff Writer Philip D. Brown can be reached at 910-997-3111 ext. 32, or by e-mail at pbrown@yourdailyjournal.com.