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Lawyers for community activist and former Ward C candidate Norrice Raymaker and that ward’s current councilwoman squared off in court today, but Hudson County Superior Court Judge Maurice Gallipoli declined to issue a ruling in the case, saying he would issue it in writing at an unspecified later date instead.

The suit, which was originally filed by Raymaker’s fellow Ward C candidate Jimmy King, alleges that Lopez’s primary residence is Florida, not Jersey City, and asks the court to vacate the result of May’s election. Raymaker joined the suit in August, and King dropped out after pleading guilty to federal corruption charges.

Lopez, who grew up in Jersey City, moved to Ridgefield Park in 1977 with her ex-husband Karl Boehringer. In 1994, the couple moved to Kissimmee, Fla., and in 1996 they bought a home in Orlando. Lopez testified that she moved back to Jersey City in or around 2001 following her divorce from Boehringer. However, Raymaker’s lawsuit charges that Lopez is disqualified from holding office in Jersey City because she never “abandoned her domicile” in Florida or “evidenced her intention to establish a new domicile” in New Jersey.

During her examination by Raymaker’s attorney Howard Myerowitz, Lopez testified that she claimed Florida residency and improperly received a homestead rebate on property taxes there; she said she wasn’t aware of it because she entrusted her tax matters to her accountant. Lopez has paid all her personal property taxes, as well as taxes for her Hoboken-based dental consulting business, in Florida for at least the past three years. Florida does not have a state income tax. Lopez indicated that an attorney she hired in Florida has made arrangements on her behalf to pay additional taxes and fees owed to the state Florida as a result of her improper claim.

During Myerowitz’s questioning, which Judge Gallipoli disapprovingly characterized as “machine-gun style,” he also claimed that Lopez renewed a Florida driver license in 2006 and voted by absentee ballot in Orlando in 2003. While Lopez testified that she did not recall doing either, she agreed that documents produced by Myerowitz indicated she did. Lopez also confirmed that in 2008 she signed a mortgage refinance agreement for her house in Orlando that identifies it as her primary residence. The house is currently occupied by Lopez’s son.

Lopez’s cross-examination by her attorney William Northgrave consisted of a flurry of documents that he claimed demonstrate that Lopez was domiciled in Jersey City from 2001 on. These included a voter profile indicating she registered to vote in Jersey City in 2001, the certificate of her 2001 marriage to Ben Lopez, medical records for treatment she received in New Jersey, various bills for the Orlando house that were mailed to her Corbin Avenue address and election ballots from 2003 and 2008, years in which Lopez ran for county committeewoman. Lopez also testified that she has served as a commissioner for the Jersey City Parking Authority, although she could not remember the name of the commission without prompting, and stated that she is an active member of Iglesia Presbiteriana Nueva Esperanza on North Street.

With arguments wrapping up today, both sides — and the Ward C community — will now wait for Gallipoli’s written ruling. A staffer in the judge’s chambers could not give a definite date when it would be issued.

“The only reason this case got as far as it did was because Lopez failed to mind her Ps and Qs,” Northgrave, referring to her improper tax claim, said during his closing statement. He said that the arguments presented by Myerowitz failed to meet the required standard of “clear and convincing” evidence that the councilwoman does not live in New Jersey, and he requested the matter be dismissed.

But in his closing, Myerowitz argued that his case met the standard of a “preponderance of evidence” showing that Lopez has not abandoned her Florida home, or made efforts to establish a new home in New Jersey. Lopez’s actions show that she “intended to defraud” the state of New Jersey, he said, calling her claims that she didn’t recall any wrongdoing “ludicrous.” He asked Gallipoli to find in favor of Raymaker and void the results of May’s Ward C election.

After the hearing, Raymaker said Lopez was being “disingenuous” and called for the Hudson County Democratic Organization (HCDO) — whose stamp of approval is almost always necessary and sufficient to clinch a win in Jersey City elections — to “take seriously their duty to nominate authentic candidates.”

Regardless of the outcome of the case, Raymaker said all candidates should be subject to background checks once certified for the ballot. “As a community, we can’t afford to keep challenging elections,” she added.

Lopez declined to comment, saying only that she would “continue to serve the people” of Ward C as she awaits Gallipoli’s decision. But her husband Ben Lopez, who is the director of the county’s Department of Family Services and a former city councilman, was anxious to tell the press what he thought.

“This is a travesty,” he said, “that you have to prove where you live to people who lost in the election box.”