Kids hold court
Lodi courtroom gives local students firsthand look at legal system
A wolf who works as a debt collector was found not guilty by a jury in the Lodi branch of San Joaquin County Superior Court after 20 minutes of deliberation Wednesday.
The wolf’s defense team — McCandless STEM Charter School fifth-graders Rebecca Arredondo and Cruz Arceo — argued that it was possible another wolf that murdered and ate two little pigs, as well as attempted to murder and eat a third, all while repossessing the straw, sticks and bricks they used to build their homes.
The case was part of a mock trial put on by Maria Precissi’s McCandless Elementary fifth-grade class, with students taking on the roles of prosecuting and defense attorney, witness, defendant, jurors, judge, bailiff, clerk and court reporter.
Judge Barbara Kronlund started hosting mock trials in her Stockton courtroom some 20 years ago. Wednesday’s was hosted by Judge Lisa Lofthus, who said Precissi’s class was one of the best she had seen in years.
“We do ‘The People vs the Wolf ’ every year,” Lofthus said. “We have 34 judges in the county, and we all spread out and do it in many fifth grades. I was so impressed (with this class). They were prepared.”
Preparation for the trial took about a month, and Lofthus, along with San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office deputy-bailiffs, San Joaquin County District Attorney prosecutor Kyle Harrison and San Joaquin County Public Defender attorney Chris Steiner, visited Precissi’s class to help the students practice.
Students had to apply for each role by writing essays detailing why they were the right choice for the characters they were going to play, Precissi said.
Then, she and Lofthus reviewed each one and made the final decisions as to who would portray which character.
“It’s just been so great,” Precissi said. “The kids were so excited, and everybody came to class to prep them, and just really took the time to show the kids that they cared. I think they not only really learned a lot, but I think that they also had a really valuable experience for the future.”
The prosecution tries the wolf on two counts of murder and one count of attempted murder, and calls the last surviving pig of the trio, the arresting officer and a doctor to the witness stand.
After cross-examination, the defense calls the wolf, a hunter and its own doctor to the stand.
Once witnesses are questioned by both legal teams, the jury leaves the courtroom to deliberate the wolf ’s fate.
During Wednesday’s trial, the wolf admitted that he vomited when he learned two of the three pigs from whom he was collecting debt had been killed.
Prosecuting attorney Evan Magness asked the defense’s doctor Keenan Warren if she had done her own analysis of the vomit. She said she had found traces of pig meat.
“Pig meat!?” Magness exclaimed. It seemed like a slam dunk case.
But wolf Jaxon Valverde testified he had eaten porkfried rice at a local Chinese restaurant prior to confronting the pigs about their debt.
The jury of 10 said they all agreed the wolf was not guilty
in a single vote.
“We get a lot of hung juries,” Lofthus said. “And they get so upset. Sometimes we’ll be doing one in one department and another across the way, and the kids will be saying ‘oh gosh, they got a hung jury, we can’t have a hung jury, we’ve got to have a verdict!’ But what they learn is our system, and they learn that there’s a presumption of innocence.”
Because the final verdict is actually deliberated by the jury, the reactions from the two legal teams are genuine.
When he heard the verdict, Valverde smiled in surprise and shook Arceo’s hand.
“It was very fun,” he said. “Maybe not for some other people who thought I was guilty. But it was fun for me, because I got a not guilty.”
His classmates agreed, although they admitted it was a little scary having to get up in front of people.
“It was pretty nerveracking at first, but after a while I felt comfortable,” Arceo said. “You’ve got to get the hang of it.”
Parker Worley, who played the hunter, said he felt a little pressured and nervous upon taking the stand.
“Even though I didn’t do too much, it was really fun,” he said. “It’s probably one of my favorite field trips.”