Preparation Pays as Students Make Their Cases at Mock Trials

Sean Henschel may make a good lawyer someday. The Newbury Park High School junior had just finished arguing a pretrial motion before Ventura County Superior Court Judge Charles W. Campbell Jr. on Monday night when he was asked about the judge’s ruling. Campbell had granted one motion but denied another.

“It went great,” said Sean, visibly relieved that his turn at the podium was over. “We won the big one, the important one.”

Welcome to the weeklong 13th annual Ventura County Mock Trial Competition, which started Monday at the county courthouse.

The competition is as fierce as any football game, the preparation as intense.

And that’s just between the real-life attorneys coaching high school students, all of whom have put in hundreds of hours of preparation. The winner of the three-day event will compete for the state championship in Sacramento.

But just as important, the winners get bragging rights for an entire year. Both student and coach relish that prospect.

“It is highly competitive, even among the attorneys,” Ventura County Superior Court Judge Steven Z. Perren said. Perren has organized the event every year since its inception in 1983.

The tension of the 284 students--many dressed in their parents’ best and carrying empty briefcases--was palpable as contest officials explained the rules of engagement and paired up the 13 competing high schools.

Each school was given the same carjacking case to argue Monday. One side acted as the defense and the other as prosecutors for two hours, then switched roles. The drill will be repeated tonight.

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After tonight’s rounds, the four highest-scoring teams will come back Thursday and compete to represent Ventura County in Sacramento. Each trial is presided over by a judge and four scorekeepers recruited from the Ventura County public defender and district attorney’s offices as well as numerous private attorneys.

“This is the side of the bar that nobody sees,” Perren said. “There’s at least 90 attorneys and judges out here, volunteering their time.”

With the boys’ hair slicked back and the girls’ piled high, and the aromas of perfume and cologne mingling in the air, the Hall of Justice had a distinct prom-like aura about it.

“It is so exhilarating,” said Leila Yavari, a Le Reina High School senior who competed last year. Leila spent the past six months learning her part as a defense attorney who represents an accused carjacker. Her classmate, Mary Lewinski, had just finished her opening statement as prosecutor. She delivered her argument without prepared notes and with the confidence of a reigning champ.

Like last year and the year before that, all are gunning for the Mock Trial champion: tiny La Reina High in Thousand Oaks.

“We’ll make the final four,” coach Donald C. Glynn said matter-of-factly. The senior Ventura County prosecutor has coached La Reina to all of its county championships, except last year when a death in a family prevented him from participating.

He attributes the school’s success to the long hours the 19-member team has put in practicing every Sunday since September. Two other attorneys help Glynn, while a drama coach tutors the students about courtroom demeanor.

Meanwhile, several of Glynn’s younger colleagues in the Ventura County district attorney’s office are coaching other teams and have designs on unseating the champs.

Ron Bamieh and Donna Gissing are coaching Buena High School. On Monday, it was harder to tell who was more nervous, the students or Bamieh--a marked departure from his demeanor of the previous two weeks, when he would tell anyone within earshot that this was Buena’s year.

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Over at Newbury Park, the county’s newest deputy district attorney, Chrystina Jenson, is helping out as a coach for the first time. Jenson graduated from Newbury Park in 1985 and her favorite political science teacher, John Uelmen, talked her into helping the team.

The three young prosecutors readily admit that they want the office bragging rights.

Where Glynn is reserved and carries himself like a coach with a dynasty, his two younger colleagues play the role of upstarts. Gissing began leaving taunting messages on Glynn’s answering machine two weeks ago, including a chorus of the song “Kiss Him Goodbye,” which includes the refrain “Nah, nah, nah, nah . . . hey, hey . . . goodbye” made popular at sporting events.

But Glynn has refused to take the bait.

“That’s all baloney,” he said. “Bamieh has never reached the round of four. We have always been a contender. Always will.”

With that, the good-natured taunting came to an end. The Ventura County champion will be crowned Thursday night.