- Home
- News Grid
- Local News
- Green Hawk
- Business
- Politics
- School Zone
- Nonprofits
- Missing Pets
- Multimedia
- Arts
- Movies
- Outdoors
- Sports
- News Releases
- Columnists
- Blogs
- Opinions
- Classifieds
- Advertise
- Donate
- Partners
Dos Pueblos Edges San Marcos for County Mock-Trial Championship
In the closest championship final in Santa Barbara County history, the Dos Pueblos High School Mock Trial team edged out archrival San Marcos High to capture the Santa Barbara County Mock Trial Championship on Saturday at the county Courthouse.
Amazingly, after some 2,000 points, the scoring attorneys determined that the Dos Pueblos defense team had defeated the San Marcos prosecution team by the exact same small margin that the San Marcos defense team had edged the Dos Pueblos prosecution. The judges who presided over the finals — Superior Court Judges Tom Anderle and Denise de Bellefeuille — broke the tie and declared Dos Pueblos the champion.
It was the second straight title for Dos Pueblos and the third year in a row that the two teams had met in the championship round. Dos Pueblos now moves on to the 29th annual California Mock Trial Finals on March 19 in San Jose.
“It was an epic final match-up of two outstanding teams,” said Dos Pueblos captain Christina Li. “We’ve worked so hard for this and the best thing was that we were at our best in the final round.
“We’re big rivals but we also have a lot of respect for San Marcos and their program,” she added. “As great as it feels to win, we know that both teams were deserving.”
This year’s case focused on the first-degree murder trial of Jordan Bratton, a comic in the fictional town of “Hollyville.” Bratton was accused of strangling notorious critic Preston Palmer after a review Palmer had written had severely damaged Bratton’s comedic career. The trial also involved a pretrial argument focusing on whether the seizure of evidence violated the Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable search and seizure.
Sponsored by the Constitutional Rights Foundation, mock trial teams all receive the same case packet, witness statements and facts in September, and spend hours each week preparing their arguments and exams, researching the law, and developing character for the witnesses. Local attorneys donate their time to mentor and coach the students.
The Dos Pueblos team included:
Pretrial Attorneys: Connie Wang, Noah Connally, Rashi Singh, Connie Phung
Prosecution Attorneys: Philip Bildner, Nathanial Block, Megha Manjunath
Defense Attorneys: Jeff Campbell, Cheryl Wilson, Richard Cheng, Olivia Campbell
Prosecution Witnesses: Sean Guthrie, Juhi Khemani, Morgan Lunt, Alix de Gramont, Paige Brenner, Jackie McGuan
Defense Witnesses: Corinne Ruth, Christina Li, Emma Steinkellner, Collin Clarke, Chloe Hunt
Clerk: Patrick Holmes
Bailiff: Michael Baik
Courtroom Artists: Lian Fumerton-Liu, Yibing Zhang
Understudies: Chloe Warriner.Alison Mally, Paisha Fellows
Attorney Coaches: Maureen Grattan, Scott Campbell, Joel Block
Teacher Coach: Bill Woodard
— Bill Woodard is a Dos Pueblos High English teacher and the school’s mock-trial coach.
Comments
Noozhawk's comments are moderated, but by posting here you accept your responsibility to follow our rules as part of Noozhawk's shared online community. Please keep your comments civil and helpful. Don't attack other readers personally, and do not use vulgar, abusive or discriminatory language. Use the "Report Abuse" link if a comment violates these standards or our Terms of Use.
More Local News »
SBCC Seeks Community Input on Continuing Education Programs
Three forums will be held in February to discuss course offerings, fees and the proposed Center for Lifelong Learning.
Santa Barbara Foundation Awards $75,000 Grant to SBCC Foundation
Funding will be used to increase student degree completion and transfer rates
Laguna Blanca Alumni Screen Surf Documentary at Santa Barbara Film Festival
Adam Pesce and Danielle Robinson are the co-creators of Splinters, showing Sunday at Metro 4
Laguna Blanca’s Miles Crist Named a Finalist in SBIFF’s Student Filmmaking Competition
Freshman says vacation footage captured in Europe turned into 'one of my better films'
Destination Science Summer Camps Set to Blast Off in Santa Barbara Area
Day program aims to inspire students with action-packed, hands-on activities
Weather: Mostly Cloudy 58.0º
Search Noozhawk »
