High School Legal Team Acquits Self Well : Chatsworth Has Day in Court

Despite a favorable ruling in two of their three preliminary rounds, the mock trial team from Chatsworth High School Wednesday failed to reach the final round in state competition, which was won by Clovis West High School of Fresno.

However, the seven-member team was one of the few competitors to receive a guilty verdict from the presiding judge while prosecuting a fictional teen-ager accused of hit-and-run driving.

“The verdict doesn’t affect the score in trials like these,” explained Shirley Hess, a social studies teacher and the team’s adviser. “The kids are judged on how well they argue their case and how the witnesses perform.”

According to comments from the judges and attorneys who heard the case during the two-day competition at the Sacramento Superior Court building, the neophyte attorneys put on a convincing show.

Quality of Competition Lauded

“What I hear in this courtroom every day of the week doesn’t even begin to approach the quality of what I got here,” said Sacramento Superior Court Judge Michael S. Ullman after presiding over Chatsworth’s first round of competition against Berkeley High School Tuesday night. “I wish the real attorneys who come before me could present a case so well.”

Ullman was one of 18 volunteer judges and commissioners from throughout the state who heard “People vs. Ballard,” presented by student teams representing 21 counties. Although the hypothetical case was written to make for a realistic trial, the fictional defendant was acquitted much of the time.

“Everything is weighted for the defense in this case. The prosecution shouldn’t even expect to get the verdict,” said Victoria Mah, head attorney for Chatsworth High’s mock trial team.

Instead, prosecuting teams map out their strategy to earn performance points from the real lawyers who volunteer their talents to rate how well the students question witnesses and adapt to the flow of the trial.

During the state tournament, Chatsworth student attorneys Mah, Katherine Lincoln and Nikki Suydam employed courtroom procedure to sidetrack opposing attorneys with objections, force witnesses to cast doubt on their own testimony and protect their own witnesses from revealing too much--as actual lawyers do in the courtroom to influence a verdict.

At times, objections flew fast and thick during the competition as the student lawyers tried to make the opposing teams forget about asking witnesses for key testimony.

“I probably made some wrong rulings on all those objections,” Ullman said to the student team. “You were throwing them at me too fast. But I guess that’s part of the idea, isn’t it? Your whole goal is to throw off the other attorney--and maybe the judge, too.”

Although witnesses are required to stick to the facts as they are presented in the case outline, the team’s own study of courtroom procedure, combined with some drama coaching, also helps score points.

“The object when you’re being cross-examined is not to give them anything without making them work for it,” said Aaron Danchik, who played a witness for Chatsworth’s defense team. “Then, if they forget to get something out of you, you can move in and score on them. And the more you’re able to act like the character you’re supposed to be, the more points you bring in for your team.”

Organizers with the Constitutional Rights Foundation, which sponsors the mock trial project, said competition at this year’s tournament, the largest since state finals were first held in 1982, was particularly fierce.

“As is typical with a lot of competitive situations, the adults are much more competitive about the whole thing than the students are,” said project coordinator Daphne Dennis. “We would love to try to minimize that as much as possible.”

Trials Widely Accepted

According to several team advisers, however, mock trials rapidly are becoming an accepted form of school competition.

“The teachers promote it heavily now in Orange County, and the students are becoming very competitive about wanting to be on the team,” said Phil Singer, legal adviser for Los Alamitos High School’s 16-member team, which competed against Chatsworth in one semifinal round. “They’re out there now, spotting them as sophomores and juniors to recruit them into the team.”

Chatsworth’s Hess said, however, that she had trouble rounding up her original 12-member team, which dwindled to the current seven once county competition started.

“We don’t even know if we’re going to have a team next year,” she said. “They may be changing some of the elective requirements, and the idea of having the team will just fade into obscurity.”