High Life A WEEKLY FORUM FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS : Cypress Mock-Counsel Courts Success

They made the motions when they had the notions, and as a result, the mock-trial team from Cypress High School is headed to the state capital.

The 14-member team will represent Orange County at the state mock-trial competition April 5 to 7 in Sacramento, having won the right by defeating Santa Margarita High School in the county final in December.

Mock-trial teams from Cypress are no strangers to success. Two years ago the team won both the county and state competitions and last year finished second in the county.

In Sacramento, Cypress will go up against teams from more than 30 other schools, each representing its county. The winner of the state competition will qualify for the national competition in May in Portland, Ore.

“I know we’ve got the talent to win, and if we’re all doing our best, we’ll knock ‘em dead,” said Amy Vaughn, a junior member who serves as a witness for Cypress.

“One thing, whether we win or lose,” Vaughn said, “I’m positive that our team will have a great time in Sacramento.”

The mock-trial program, in its ninth year and with 48 high schools competing on the local level, is sponsored by the Constitutional Rights Foundation, a nonprofit organization founded by lawyers and others 28 years ago to educate students about the legal system.

The students in mock trial portray defense and prosecution attorneys as well as witnesses on both sides of each case that is tried.

In December’s county final--a culmination of a season’s worth of eight rounds of competition--the Cypress team represented the prosecutorial side of a mock case involving issues of gun ownership and homicide. The case was tried before Orange County Superior Court Judge Gary L. Taylor and two other judges.

The Cypress team, including mock lawyers Lori Uyeno, a senior, and Jyoti Nanda and April Balangue, both juniors, received information about the case in October, giving it four weeks to prepare for its first competition.

The students put in more than 180 hours in practice sessions, which often required sacrificing social and study time.

The other team members are seniors Alice Ho (pretrial attorney), Karen Ahlstedt (witness), Angela Banchi (witness), Keri Bogdanovich (witness), April Lott (witness) and juniors Stacey Brooks (witness), Lydia Kim (witness), Elise Tiregol (witness), David Brown (clerk) and Chris Walters (bailiff).

The Constitutional Rights Foundation recently honored two members of the Cypress team. Uyeno was named the county’s outstanding attorney and Ho the county’s top pretrial attorney--an honor won by Cypress students for three consecutive years.

Marc Rozenberg, who works out of the district attorney’s office in Santa Ana, has volunteered his time during the past four years to work with the Cypress mock-trial team. He has been joined recently by attorneys Dan McNerney and Jerry Johnston.

John Gruendyke, coach of the Cypress team since its beginning five years ago and teacher of history at the high school, is grateful for the help.

“I have three things to credit for the success of our program,” he said. “The kids, the attorneys and the judges who hear the cases.

“I think it’s terrific that these people, with their hectic schedules, volunteer their time to work with the kids.”