Highlights From the County Mock Trial Competition
LJCDS places in top 10 at the San Diego County High School Mock Trial Competition.
The following excerpt is from the La Jolla Light article, “The verdict is in: La Jolla students win awards at county mock trial competition.”
Two of La Jolla’s three high schools placed in the top 10 among 32 entrants in the recent San Diego County High School Mock Trial Competition, and members of all three earned individual awards for performance.
During a mock trial, school teams are split between prosecution and defense on the same case. Each round of competition features one school’s prosecution against another’s defense; each team has 40 minutes to try their entire case.
During the 2022 contest, which took place over five days between Feb. 26 and March 10, teams competed in person at the San Diego Central Courthouse. Last year’s version was held entirely on Zoom due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
La Jolla Country Day School, which won the title last year, entered two teams, with Team 1 placing sixth overall. Team 1 member Siena Bateman won an award for outstanding bailiff, Team 2 member Sophia Hwang was named an outstanding prosecution witness and Team 1 member Roma Nagle earned an award for outstanding pretrial defense attorney.
“There’s a lot of underlying tension between the defendant and the neighbor who died,” said La Jolla Country Day competitor Caroline Kelly. In the trial scenario, the defendant’s mother died after the neighbor — her landlord — cut off her electricity over non-payment of rent.
As the defendant, Kelly, a senior who has been on mock trial teams for six years, said it was difficult “digging into the emotional aspect of it.”
