Watchung Hills Regional Mock Trial Team Set for Upcoming County Finals

Members of Watchung Hills Regional High School’s mock trial team achieved semi-finalist standing after the  third go-around in the annual Vincent J. Apruzzese Mock Trial held Jan. 12 at the Somerset County Courthouse.

The 10-member team had won the first round in the  competition against students of Somerville High School, lost its second round to Mount St. Mary’s High School; won its third round, again competing versus St. Mary’s, and had earned enough points altogether to qualify for the semi-finals which will take place on Feb. 1, competing with Montgomery High School.

The  Mock Trial Competition, which has  taken place every January since the 1982-1983 school year, is sponsored by the New Jersey State Bar Foundation in cooperation with New Jersey’s Bar Associations. The competition was named in honor of the Hon. Vincent J. Apruzzese, Esq., a leader of the New Jersey State Bar Foundation and proponent of law-related education programs for students. Designed as a hands-on learning experience, the event brings the law to life.

Meeting after school since  September of the present school year, under the guidance of social studies teacher Greg Biniukow, Watchung Hills’ 10 team members learned to prepare to participate in the competition. In addition to becoming immersed in the details of the case, students learned to understand the meaning of good citizenship in a democracy, became acquainted with the American system of law and justice and sharpened their organizational and speaking skills, an asset in any future profession.

Each of the competing teams consists of 10 members, among whom will be two “attorneys,” three “witnesses” and three alternates for the prosecution and  a like number for the defense. They also serve as jurors in rounds in which they are not participants.   

Each phase of the trial must be completed in a given number of minutes. For example: Opening Statements, four minutes for each side; Direct Examination, six minutes; Cross Examination, seven  minutes; Closing Statement, eight minutes. (Participants must present their case entirely without referring to notes.) Every team in the competition must participate in at least two trials, switching sides for the second go-round.  Competition judges render their decision based on the quality of students’ performance in the case and the best team performance.

Every year, a fictitious, yet very authentic, case is presented for the competitors’ consideration. Most cases are derived from timely, authentic, news-worthy incidents. This year, the trial centers upon a high school student who breaks into her math teacher’s home, supposedly to leave a paper she had not turned in. She has been under the influence of a real estate agent who subscribes to an “anti-Davonian” prejudice—Davonians being a fictitious minority group. When the latter shoots the Davonian  homeowner, the student also somehow becomes involved in the case for having intimidated the victim because of his national origin.

Participants in the mock trial each receive a thick workbook that sets forth the details of the case, the parameters of the competition and the rules for judging. The 64-page workbook is also a mini-text of trial procedure, the rules pertaining to evidence and testimony and the complete  evidence on the case, such as witnesses’ statements, circumstances and excerpts of published articles on the related theme—in this case, such material as hate crime statistic, fictional “Tell the Davonites to Go Home”  on Farcebook pages, etc. Each student participant is chosen for a specific role and learns the script that lays out the facts of the case. Each then develops that role, paying careful attention to the legal requirements and constraints, correct vocabulary and the etiquette and procedures of the courtroom.

In the current case, State of New Jersey v. Pat Hopper, the cast  included: Prosecution lawyers, Soumya Sudhakar and Sampson Ho; Defense lawyers, Abhinav  Dantaluri and David Wasserstein; witnesses for the prosecution, Manaswini Rajaram, Sam Ferrara, Julia Horowitz; witnesses for the defense, Michaela Pesce, Dan Rietze, Matt Armanious.

Dantaluri was named “Best lawyer,” in Round One;  Rietze, “Best Witness” in Round Three.

In addition to their teacher-advisor, the Hills team had the assistance of attorney Joseph Sordillo.

The legal bouts, acclaimed as one of the nation’s foremost contests of its kind for high school students,  are coordinated and judged by a panel of New Jersey State Bar volunteer/jurists, and by Somerset  County judges. Eight Somerset County secondary schools participated in this year’s competition.

The annual Mock Trial experience is  yet another way in which “everyone wins.” More educational than merely competitive, it is a learning experience that brings law to life and fosters the understanding of the meaning of good citizenship, whether as juror, defendant or plaintiff in a suit.