After a lengthy court session, a special judge is poised to issue a ruling this week on whether State Rep. Connie Johnson should stay on the State Senate ballot.

As reported in the Post-Dispatch, court documents and other records suggest that Johnson had been staying with her ailing mother at a home in the city’s West End - which is both outside the House District she represents, and the State Senate she is seeking to represent.

One of Johnson’s two rivals from within the party - State Rep. Robin Wright-Jones - filed a lawsuit challenging her residency status.

Friday’s hearing took place in the Carnahan Courthouse in front of Judge Douglas Long, a retired jurist from Pulaski County who was assigned the case by the State Supreme Court after the previous judge, Mark Neill, recused himself - Neill’s brother was on the host committee of a Wright-Jones fundraiser.

Even after sitting through almost all of the hearing Friday, it’s tough to predict how the judge will rule. Johnson maintains that her address in the district was her “true and fixed home” that she intended to return to, despite testimony that showed she rented the home out to a pair of tenants whose lease included a purchase option.

Tax records entered into evidence - a W-2 form from her previous employer, the law firm Armstrong Teasdale - gave the West End address.

The court also heard testimony from an insurance agent who sold Johnson car insurance at the West End address, and a real estate agent who says Johnson authorized her to put her district home for sale. (Johnson says the home was listed without her knowing, and when she found out there was a “For Sale” sign in front of the house, she took it out.)

The hearing took a slightly surreal turn when, needing someone to “play the part” of one of Johnson’s tenants, Wright-Jones took the witness stand, reading from a deposition given earlier by the tenant.

In several instances, the testimony was contradictory. Johnson testified she was “roommates” with the individuals who were paying rent to stay in her district home, though, when asked about living arrangements, Johnson conceded she didn’t have a bed at the house.

“I crashed on the floor,” Johnson said.

Johnson also claimed she found the tenants through church friends; the tenants claim they found the house on a website.

Much of the hearing was filled with back and forth objections between the two attorneys. The hearing finally ended around 7 p.m., more than eight hours after it began - and that’s without a lunch break.

Said Susan Block, the barrister representing Wright-Jones: “That’s a lot of billable hours.”

Johnson