La Reina’s Mock Trial Squad Is Ready to Tell It to the Judge

The courtroom atmosphere was so realistic.

Hard-bound books filled tall shelves. Long wooden tables were topped by briefcases. Young lawyers were fervently arguing their cases, taking great pains to make eye contact with the judge and carefully gesturing at just the right moments.

But something was off.

Maybe it was the paper mobiles hanging from the ceiling, encouraging people to read. “Books are best friends,” and “Libraries are full of wonder,” they said.

But more likely it was the cups the attorneys were drinking from. No lipstick-stained Styrofoam here. No, these tall cups featured the corporate logos for 7-Eleven’s Slurpee and McDonald’s golden arches.

This was the La Reina High School mock trial team on Tuesday, squeezing in a last practice in the school library before heading to the state competition in Sacramento, which begins Friday evening.

In a mock trial, students play the roles of attorneys, witnesses and courtroom staff as they argue a real-life criminal case. Scoring is based on how players perform their parts.

It is the sixth time in eight years that La Reina, an all-girls Catholic school in Thousand Oaks, has represented Ventura County at the state competition. They have been practicing since September.

“In the past, it was ‘We’re going up to have fun,’ ” said Vicki Chou, a 15-year-old junior. “This year, we are going up to win.”

Senior Anneliese Kannow, who has been on the team for three years, and her classmates donned black sweaters listing the years La Reina has taken the county championship (1990-91, 1994-97). But they have yet to bring home a state title.

“We want to win,” she said.

*

Like high school sporting events or academic decathlons, competing in a mock trial takes hard work, months of training and a will to win. But it also teaches students valuable lessons outside the traditional confines of a classroom.

“Mock trial teaches the kids about the court process by letting them learn by doing: They learn all the aspects of the system in a way they never could by passively listening,” said Superior Court Judge Steven Z. Perren, who has organized the county’s annual competition since its inception in 1983.

“They really have to learn how to think quick on their feet,” added La Reina’s mock trial advisor, Eileen De Bruno. “Just like in a real trial, we can prepare them. But they don’t know what may come in cross-examination.”

La Reina has fielded a mock trial team since the 1986-87 school year. De Bruno got the idea after visiting another school that proudly displayed a championship trophy.

In the school’s first few years of competition, the all-girls team was competing primarily against public school squads comprised almost entirely of boys--a trend that has shifted in recent years, De Bruno said.

Now, students say the competition among classmates to get on the La Reina team is fierce.

Tryouts begin in September as students audition for roles by arguing fictional cases, or fairy tales. Favorites include criminal charges brought against Goldilocks for breaking and entering and Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater for locking his wife in their gourd, an alleged spousal abuse.

*

The team spends two to three hours a week learning aspects of the law and preparing its case before the annual county competition. Members often meet on weekends and crunch additional practices into busy school schedules as the event nears.

With the state finals only days away, the excitement was evident this week as the group hunkered down for its final practice.

“Ladies, tonight is going to be serious. We’ve joked around enough,” said Steven Korell, a local attorney who played the role of judge during the rehearsal.

“Yes,” agreed Coach Donald C. Glynn, “tonight is going to be total major focus.”

The case the team of 22 girls has practiced is the same they presented at the Ventura County competition in February. It will be the same case every other school at the state championship argues this weekend.

The “fact situation,” as offered in a booklet of case scenarios, describes a high school student accused of vandalizing a classroom and cracking the school’s computer system in order to change a grade.

*

Glynn, a deputy district attorney for Ventura County who has coached the team for the last nine years, said this year’s team has the drive and intensity that may set it apart from past teams.

“We had a number of seniors who suffered from senioritis when we got to state last year,” he said. He foresees no similar monkey business this year.

“I think they’re ready,” added Mark Scarberry, a law professor at Pepperdine, who coaches the students presenting pretrial motions. “They’re very serious this year. They really want to win.”

Glynn said maybe one or two team members a year go on to become lawyers. The rest walk away with a greater understanding of the criminal justice system, including constitutional issues and the laws that govern which evidence is permissible in court.

That is the case for Dyllan Siemann, a junior “witness” and first-year team member. “It totally made me become interested in law,” she said, although she is not interested in becoming a lawyer.

Fifteen-year-old Sandhya Ramadas said she has not chosen a career path. But hearing her argue pretrial motions before Judge Perren last week, one might think she was a first-year law student--not a high school sophomore.

“Yes, your honor, there is an expectation of privacy,” Sandhya said, arguing issues of search and seizure that will be key during the state competition.

After a tough drilling by the judge, Sandhya sighed and looked at her notes. With only a few more days to fine-tune her arguments, she planned to review a videotape of their session, which was recorded by parent Bill Byrd, whose daughter, Kelley, is also on the team.

“I wish you luck,” Perren said, clicking off his courtroom microphone. “At some point, I expect La Reina to come back with all the laurels.”

Tracy Wilson is a Times staff writer; Penny Arevalo is a correspondent.