TCOE mock trial competition begins
Granite Hills to send first-ever competitive team
Thirteen Tulare County high school teams will match wits against one another in the annual Mock Trial Competition beginning Jan. 23, and for the first time, Granite Hills High School will be sending a team of their own.
Leisa Navarro, Granite Hills social studies teacher and coach of the mock trial team, said her students are prepared, but competing for the first time against other high schools in the county will be a challenge.
Due to a last-minute schedule change, Granite’s team squared off against Mission Oak High School on Monday night, one day before the official beginning of competition.
“They’re a little nervous. I think they understand it and they know where they need to be, but it’s our first year, so we’re going to learn a lot from this,” said Navarro.
Although this is the first year Granite will compete against other high schools, students are familiar with the concept of a mock trail. Sophomore students in the Law, Justice and Ethics Pathway do a mock trial project each year, which is graded by lawyers as if it were a competition and presided over by Judge Glade Roper.
“They’ve had a taste of it, and that’s what has enabled us to build up to a competition team,” said Navarro.
Granite is the only team in the county that has a mock trial class, and Navarro was busy Monday morning with last-minute rehearsals and adjustments before the evening’s competition.
Junior Daity Tapia, who will play a prosecuting attorney in the trial, said she and the other attorneys use a team approach to tackle different issues of the case and distribute the workload.
“For us it’s about finding our strengths,” said Tapia.
Mock trial teams are comprised of 10 to 20 students who take on the roles of lawyers, witnesses, court clerks and bailiffs.
All teams must make their presentations based on identical hypothetical case materials. Each team presents the case for both the prosecution and defense twice during the course of the competition.
Navarro said that each role on the mock trial team presents its own challenges. She feels team members playing attorneys do a solid job asking questions of witnesses, but those playing eyewitnesses have to focus on staying in character to give an accurate portrayal.
“It’s interesting. You have to portray someone else and it’s hard. I think being a witness is harder because you have to be that character,” said senior Ever Astorga, who is playing a witness in the trial. “You have to know your information, because when you get cross-examined they’re going to try and make you look bad.”
All teams will present their cases before actual judges and attorneys, with three attorneys scoring each trial.
The first four rounds and the semifinal round will take place in the Tulare County Superior Court building (third floor).
Open to the public, the trial dates are: Jan. 23, 25 and 30, and Feb. 1 (preliminary rounds); and Feb. 8 (semifinal round). Trials begin each night at 5 p.m.
The finals will take place at 5 p.m. on Feb. 20 at the Tulare County Office of Education Redwood Conference Center (6200 S. Mooney Blvd., Visalia). Members of the public, parents, students and teachers are welcome to attend any of the trials.
Granite Hills will compete against teams from Dinuba, El Diamante (Visalia), Exeter, Mission Oak (Tulare), Mt. Whitney (Visalia), Orosi, Redwood (Visalia), Tulare Union, Tulare Western, University Preparatory (Visalia) and Woodlake high schools.
For 2018, teams will be preparing the fictitious case entitled People v. Davidson, which is the trial of Casey Davidson, a resident of Acorn.
Davidson faces a felony count of first-degree murder for the death of Alex Thompson, another young resident of Acorn and member of Ultra Nats, an extremist nationalist group.
The prosecution alleges that Davidson murdered Thompson in the same park where a political rally had taken place. Attendees gathered in the park to either protest or support a national radio political commentator who is critical of liberal immigration policies.
The defense argues that Davidson did not murder Thompson and has an alibi for what happened at the time of death.
According to the defense, Davidson was an activist in the nonviolent Equality for All (EFA) group and had a history of mediating behavior during conflict.
The pretrial issue in People v. Davidson focuses on whether it is a search under the Fourth Amendment for the government to obtain routinely collected GPS location data from a thirdparty GPS provider.
Law enforcement used such GPS information to gather evidence that Davidson had traveled to Thompson’s residence several times in the days before his death.
Navarro said the topics covered in the mock court case, especially pretrial, are critical current issues.
“It’s very relevant. The Supreme Court is deciding on that right now, and we’ve been listening to a podcast about it,” said Navarro. “It’s interesting because what they decide could really make a difference for many people similar to the characters in the fictitious court case.”
The mock trial program is sponsored by the Constitutional Rights Foundation, and co-sponsored by the California Department of Education, the State Bar of California, the Young Lawyers’ Association and the Daily Journal Corporation.
The Tulare County Office of Education coordinates the program locally, with assistance from local attorneys and judges.
Champions from the final round will be eligible to compete in the annual state finals March 1618 at the Central Justice Center in Santa Ana.
For more information, contact Scott Pierce at the Tulare County Office of Education at 6510562.