Martinez Tribune The website of the Martinez Tribune.
By JONATHAN B. LANCE
After a number of speeches made by coaches and individual awards were presented to exceptionally performing students, the 35th annual Contra Costa County High School Mock Trial awards ceremony concluded with the naming of this year’s championship team: Miramonte High (Orinda).
Miramonte beat Acalanes High Feb. 23 in the final round, inside the A.F. Bray Courthouse in Martinez.
Contra Costa County presiding judge Hon. Steven Austin was on hand to address the large crowd, congratulate all the participants, and hand out the mock trial awards.
“I’ve been involved with mock trials for 16 years, and it’s still so much fun to watch your hard work and talent come together in our courtrooms. At work, I often hear my fellow judges, who volunteer with mock trials, speak so highly of how well you all did the night before during your matches. We are all so impressed. The skills you honed for mock trials will certainly be an asset to you, and you’ll carry them for the rest of your lives,” Austin said.
Most of the teams begin their mock trial training when they commence the new school year – which makes mock trials one of the longest seasons of all the participating schools’ sports and academic activities.
For the past four weeks (seven evenings), Miramonte High School and 14 other Contra Costa County High School Mock Trial teams have been battling it out with each other inside the Superior Courthouse courtrooms of Martinez. Miramonte High School will now represent Contra Costa County at the California State Mock Trial Competition held in Sacramento March 18-20. A California state finalist team will then compete in the National Mock Trial Competition held in Boise, Idaho, May 12-14.
Teams from the following 15 Contra Costa County high schools competed: Acalanes (Lafayette), Alhambra (Martinez), California (San Ramon), Campolindo (Moraga), Clayton Valley Charter (Concord), Deer Valley (Antioch), El Cerrito (El Cerrito), Hercules Middle/High (Hercules), Heritage (Brentwood), Kennedy (Richmond), Miramonte (Orinda), Monte Vista (Danville), Northgate (Walnut Creek), Pinole Valley (Pinole), and Richmond (Richmond).
The top four teams finished in this order: 1) Miramonte; 2) Acalanes; 3) Heritage; 4) California.
GJEL Accident Attorneys underwrote this year’s Mock Trial program. The law firm also funded The Contra Costa County Office of Education Mock Trial Scholarship Program. The recipients of the three $1,000 scholarships were Lucy Portnoff, Miramonte High; Izabel Rodriguez, Kennedy High; and Kelly Wong, Richmond High. These funds can be applied to their college tuition, books, room and board, travel to and from school, or other expenses related to higher education.
Mock Trial is an academic event for high school students coordinated by the Contra Costa County Office of Education and sponsored by the Constitutional Rights Foundation. The purpose of this program is to teach students about the law and the workings of the legal system. To prepare, the students conducted legal research and received guidance on courtroom procedures from their schoolteachers and volunteer attorneys and judges, to acquire a working knowledge of the judicial system.
This year, an impressive 102 Bay Area practicing and retired attorneys, senior law students and sworn judges volunteered their time to serve as Mock Trial Attorney Scorers and Judges. These volunteers represented judges from Bay Area Superior Courts, the California Bankruptcy Court, the California Supreme Court, and the California Appellate Court.
Attorney Scorers included Bay Area attorneys from county District Attorney and Public Defender offices, the State Attorney General’s Office, and the California Department of Justice. Also assisting were non-profit, public, private, and corporate attorneys. In addition, senior students from five Bay Area law schools lent a hand in scoring.
