Saratoga News

Photographs by Robert Scheer

Saratoga's Cynthia Shih questions a witness in a mock trial against Live Oak High School.

Local teens try out their legal expertise

Mock trials test students' acting skills

By Tim Persyn

Students from Prospect and Saratoga high schools engaged in courtroom drama and legal debate when they competed in the 15th annual Santa Clara County Mock Trials, held
Feb. 8-22 at the Santa Clara County Courthouse in San Jose.

During the two-week period, a total of 24 local high schools participated in six days of mock trials, which are coordinated by the Santa Clara County Office of Education.

Each high school's team consisted of a prosecution and defense which tried the case People v. Caufield against a competing school. The case involved issues of carjacking, "three strikes" and due process. Through elimination, the 24 teams would eventually be whittled down to one champion. The scoring was done by volunteer attorneys and judges from the county municipal and superior courts.

Saratoga made it to the semifinals, held Feb. 21, but lost to Leland High School. Prospect High School did not make it to the quarterfinals.

Hauie Lin, a prosecution attorney for Saratoga, said the trial was a lot of work but that it was a worthwhile experience.

"I've been through five drafts of my questions, due to input of advisors and students," he said, "but the experience helped my speaking skills and built my self-esteem. It takes courage to object."

Both schools received professional advice from lawyers. Saratoga's real-life lawyer was Hugh Roberts; Prospect's was Jim Torre.

Prospect student Andy Gottterba, a hair and fiber expert for the prosecution, described his experience. "It was like being in a play, but you don't know anyone else's lines, and you don't know your own," he said.

Azar Koshkabariie, a defendant for Prospect, also found acting to be a needed skill in the trial. "I'm a happy person, but I had to keep a sorry, innocent face, and I couldn't smile.

Students invested a lot of time in the project. Lin prepared his case over the course of five weeks, while Emma Rainey, a Prospect trial lawyer, spent some weekend time learning penal codes for a pretrial motion.

Part of Rainey's job, on the advice of Torre, involved working questions down to one word. "Eventually, I was able to do it," she said.

Colleen Campbell, a social science instructor and mock trial advisor at Prospect, said she believes students benefit from participating in the mock trial. "We hope they learn a little bit about the law. They will definitely learn about public speaking and team unity and will use critical-thinking skills."

Koshkabariie, who is thinking about a career in law, said the experience was helpful. "I learned a lot about law. I learned why they object."

Each school's team consisted of 18 students.

Prospect's roster consisted of Jeff Wu, Emma Rainey, Tanya Stankunas, Catherine Fung, Michelle Demps, Andy Gotterba, Chris Gotterba, Dominic Wong, Kathy Gragg, William Piper, Joan Woodhead, Nushin Mohammadi, Azar Khoshkabariie, Sarah Kent, Erin Steffensen and Charlotte Chen.

On Saratoga's team were Ashay Luther, Charles Wang, Jennifer Liao, Hauie Lin, Cynthia Shih, Chandra Priest, Hubert Shih, Stephanie Sun, Nancy Chiang, Paul Chen, Joonsik Maing, Sung-il Moon, Yolanda Manzone Jessica Beyers, Lynna Jamison and David Yu.