COUNTYWIDE : Schools Try to Make Their Cases Tonight

In this court, every trial deals with a young woman accused of drunk driving and striking a pedestrian. And every defendant is especially innocent-looking.

Defendants, lawyers and witnesses are teams from four Ventura County high schools that square off tonight in the finals of a competition designed to take the mystery out of the court system and teach students to think critically.

“We’re trying to get kids to react and think on their feet,” said Lance Erie, principal at Thousand Oaks High School, one of the schools that reached the finals of the mock-trial competition.

The other finalists are Santa Paula High School, Simi Valley High School and La Reina High School, a private girls’ school in Thousand Oaks that won the competition last year.

Fourteen teams of about 20 students each competed in the initial rounds Monday and Tuesday at the Hall of Justice in Ventura. Students portrayed prosecution or defense attorneys, witnesses, bailiffs and clerks. Judges from the county’s Superior and Municipal courts heard the cases, and lawyers from the district attorney’s, public defender’s and county counsel offices scored the teams.

In each trial, a young woman is accused of driving while intoxicated, striking a pedestrian and leaving the scene. Witnesses include another occupant of the car (who might actually have been driving), a store clerk who observed the defendant’s demeanor shortly before the accident and a professor who saw the car leave the accident scene.

The teams score points for how they present their cases and how they challenge the other side’s evidence, said Ed Arguelles, coach of the Santa Paula team. “You try to teach witnesses to slip in the gray stuff” without provoking an objection from the opposing attorney, he said.

“Thousand Oaks is known for its witness preparation,” Arguelles said. “Santa Paula is known for its cross-examination.”

The teams invariably choose an especially naive-looking student to portray the defendant, Arguelles said. When Santa Paula faced Thousand Oaks in a trial Tuesday night, defendant Anne Ringle wore a white bow in her long blond hair.

Early in the trial, the store clerk testified that the defendant ran into a display when she entered the convenience store. “I assumed she was a klutz or was drunk,” the witness testified.

“Objection!” defense attorney Ginny Reeder of Santa Paula shouted. “That’s an opinion.”

Perren said the competition gives participants “active and direct involvement in the court process.”

The winning team will compete in a state competition in Sacramento April 2-5.