BALTIMORE (AP) — A new chapter in the long-running investigation into Mayor Sheila Dixon’s financial dealings during her tenure as City Council president unfolded Tuesday when investigators searched her home for several hours, leaving with boxes of documents.

A team of state police and investigators with the state prosecutor’s office arrived at 6:30 a.m. when the mayor was home with her two teenage children, and she let them in, said her attorney, Dale Kelberman.

The seven investigators emerged at 1:40 p.m., carrying six cardboard boxes and a large cooler on wheels. Kelberman said they “seized various documents,” but he did not know exactly what those were. He had not seen the search warrant.

Dixon returned home shortly after the search ended.

“All I can tell you is I’ve cooperated with the prosecutors. I have no idea what they’re looking for,” Dixon said.

The mayor, who previously characterized the investigation as a “witch hunt,” did not repeat that phrase but noted that the probe has “been going on for quite a few years.”

“I’m going to stay focused on running the city,” she said. “I don’t have anything to hide.”

The probe by the state prosecutor’s office, which investigates public corruption, began more than two years ago and involves city money that went to companies employing Dixon’s sister and her former campaign chairman. Dixon maintains she did nothing wrong, and the Baltimore City Board of Ethics cleared her last year of any wrongdoing.

She served as City Council president from 1999 until 2007 before becoming mayor.

Kelberman noted that several people linked to the investigation have pleaded guilty to charges that did not involve Dixon.

“There’s no limitation to how long a prosecutor has to investigate, other than his judgment,” he said. “The mayor has done nothing wrong. That’s why no charges have been filed.”

Kelberman, a former assistant U.S. attorney in Maryland who concentrates on white-collar criminal defense cases, is also representing state Sen. Ulysses Currie, who is being investigated by federal authorities.

When contacted about Tuesday’s developments, State Prosecutor Robert Rohrbaugh said his office does not confirm or deny the existence of investigations.

Nancy Smith, who lives on Dixon’s street, said she was troubled by the search and said Dixon has “done a fabulous job” as mayor.

“I hate to see this happen,” Smith said.

In November, prosecutors raided the offices of Doracon Contracting Inc., whose owner, Ronald H. Lipscomb, has ties to the mayor.

The prosecutor’s office also has issued subpoenas to the Baltimore Development Corp., a quasi-public agency that negotiates the city’s most important development deals, and to the city Finance Department and the city Board of Estimates. A subpoena was also issued to Howard Dixon, a special assistant to the mayor who is not related to her.

In 2003, Doracon hired Union Technologies, also known as Utech, as a subcontractor on an east Baltimore project that received millions of dollars in city and state subsidies. Utech employed Dixon’s sister, Janice, and Dixon advocated for the project as Council president.

Utech’s owner, Mildred Boyer, pleaded guilty in March to falsifying tax returns. She used city letterhead to falsely claim her company had won a city contract so she could get a loan, part of which paid for her house. Prosecutors said then that Boyer agreed to cooperate on “other matters.” Boyer’s attorneys have said she has no connection with the mayor.

Dixon’s former campaign chairman, Dale G. Clark, pleaded guilty last year to failing to file state income tax returns after earning $500,000 as the City Council’s computer consultant. Clark did that job for six years without a contract.