Success for the Mock Trial Defense Team
Members of Bishop O’Dowd High School’s Mock Trial team were honored at a reception celebrating all of Alameda County’s Philip A. Harley Memorial Mock Trial teams on March 2. The event was held at the Alameda County Office of Education in Hayward.
The O’Dowd team, which fell to Amador Valley by two points in the Feb. 18 championship, was presented the runner up plaque by Alameda County Schools Superintendent Sheila Jordan.
“I congratulate each participating student as well as the teachers and parents who supported their efforts. Every student is a winner and they bring honor to their schools and families,” Jordan said.
“Learning the art of debate and the ability to work as a team are critical skills that will be useful all through their lives. I especially want to thank the group of legal professionals who give freely of their time and serve as real life models and mentors for every student involved,” she added
Several students were recognized with individual awards including Katie Ring ’10, who won 1st place in the county as Outstanding Prosecution Attorney, Alexandria Love ’10, who took 2nd place in the county as Outstanding Prosecution Attorney, and Raquel Zepeda ’10, who won 1st place in the county for Outstanding Witness for the Prosecution.
Honorable mention awardees included Benjamin Frazier ’10 (Outstanding Defense Attorney), Marie Rice ’10 (Outstanding Defense Attorney), Rachel Sklar ’10 (Outstanding Defense Attorney and Outstanding Pre-Trial Motion-Prosecution); Laura Penaranda ’10 (Outstanding Witness for the Defense), Christian Tachiera ’10 (Outstanding Witness for the Defense), Woudnesh Yilma ’10 (Outstanding Witness for the Defense), and Jasmin Porter ’10 (Outstanding Witness for the Prosecution).
Frazier also received the Team Spirit Award.
Looking ahead to next year, students who are interested in participating in Mock Trial and parent volunteers, particularly litigation attorneys who could help with trial preparation, should contact Bonnie Sussman at bsussman@bishopodowd.org.
Feb 23, 2010
Bishop O’Dowd High School fell to Amador Valley by two points at Alameda County’s Philip A. Harley Memorial Mock Trial Championship held on Feb. 18. It was the first time in seven years that an O’Dowd team had advanced this far in the competition, although teams have been in the semifinal round every year since 1998. Amador Valley was the county champion in 2007.
The final match was held at the Rene C. Davidson Alameda County Courthouse in Oakland, with the O’Dowd Defense team facing off against Amador Valley’s Prosecution team. Alameda County Judge Jon Rolefson, parent of four O’Dowd alumni, presided over the finals and practicing attorneys served as judges.
Coordinated by the Alameda County Office of Education in collaboration with the Alameda County legal community and the Constitutional Rights Foundation, Mock Trial is a simulation of a criminal case with a pretrial motion on a Bill of Rights issue.
School teams of approximately 15-20 students study a hypothetical case, conduct legal research and learn courtroom procedures and trial preparation techniques from their teacher sponsors and volunteer attorney coaches.
Students portray each of the principals in the cast of courtroom characters – counsel, witnesses, court clerk, and bailiff – thus acquiring a working knowledge of our judicial system. Teams alternately argue the case from the defense and the prosecution prospective.
Four competition trials are held during the month of February. This year, O’Dowd won each of their four trials, and won by more than 53 percent of the points, coming in first place in the county in this round.
The top four teams then compete in the semifinal round. Amador Valley defeated Piedmont High and O’Dowd defeated C.O.I.L. Charter of Fremont in the semifinals, setting up an Amador vs. O’Dowd final.
Participants are scored on a 5 point scale (1- Far Below Average, 2 – Below Average, 3-Average, 4-Above Average, 5-Excellent). Attorneys are scored on each direct examination and cross examination, witnesses on their testimony/performance on the stand, attorneys on pre-trial argument, opening statement and closing arguments, and the bailiff and clerk on their role. A perfect performance would be 100 points.
In the final, two of the judges tied O’Dowd and Amador in scoring. One judge gave the win to O'Dowd by six points, and one judge gave the win to Amador by eight points. The final score was 352 to 350 in favor of Amador.
“O’Dowd, therefore, lost by less than 1 percent, which makes this year an especially difficult loss as most of the team participants are seniors who have been a part of the Mock Trial team all four years,” team moderator/O’Dowd social studies teacher Bonnie Sussman said.
“One of the difficulties faced by the teams in the competition is the subjectivity of the scoring,” she added. “Often on the score sheets, for the same performance, one judge might give a ‘2’, another might give a ‘3’ and one might give a ‘5’.”
Amador Valley will represent Alameda County at the statewide competition to be held March 19-21, in San Jose, Calif.
Students on the O’Dowd Mock Trial Team spent hundreds of hours preparing for this trial season, Sussman said. Schools received the case written by the Constitutional Rights Foundation in September and every Tuesday and Thursday, from September through January, students worked on trial preparation from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. They often worked on weekends and through vacations.
Students participating on the team included seniors Jieann Arcayena, Edward Boscacci, Marina Chrys, Ben Frazier, Alexandria Love, Molly Montgomery, Jasmin Porter, Marie Rice, Katie Ring, Rachel Sklar, Christian Tachiera, Woody Yilma and Raquel Zepeda; juniors Jackie Bordessa, Celina Ensenat, Sheena Miller; and freshmen Laura Penaranda and Cayla Whitley.
Special thanks go to past parent Anne Bookin, who volunteered hundreds of hours at practices and all of the trials. Her son, Sam Bookin ’02, a Mock Trial team alumnus, was also indispensable in helping prepare the team.
In addition to Amador Valley, O’Dowd, Piedmont and C.O.I.L., other high schools that competed in this year’s county Mock Trial competition included American High School (Fremont), East Bay Arts High School (Hayward), Granada High School (Livermore), K.I.P.P. King High School (San Lorenzo), Moreau Catholic High School (Hayward), Oakland Tech High School (Oakland), and Skyline High School (Oakland).
All participants will be celebrated at an awards reception set for March 2 at the Alameda County Office of Education in Hayward.
Looking ahead to next year, students who are interested in participating in Mock Trial and parent volunteers, particularly litigation attorneys, who could help with trial preparation should contact Bonnie Sussman at bsussman@bishopodowd.org.
Feb, 17, 2010
O'Dowd in County Mock Trail Finals
The team will be practicing after school Wed. and Thurs. - the trial is Thursday night 6 -8:30 in the Rene C. Davidson Courthouse, Dept 1 on the 2nd Floor - 1225 Fallon Street.
Last Thursday night, as most students were beginning a five day weekend, the Mock Trial team conducted the last of its four competition trials. As it had in the first three trials, the team won a Convincing victory winning again by 53% of the points and finishing in first place for the county. Throughout the weekend the team practiced for the semifinals which were held last night in Alameda County Courthouse. In a hard fought battle with COILL High School, the Prosecution team of attorneys Rachel Sklar, Ben Frazier and Katie Ring, witnesses Raquel Zepeda, Cayla Whitley, Jieann Arcayena and Jasmin Porter and our clerk and timekeeper Edward Boscacci scored 347 points to COILL's 320 and with this win advances to the finals Thursday night. In the other semi final round Piedmont was defeated by Amador Valley so the trial for the county mock trial team winner will be O'Dowd against Amador Valley. By a coin toss, it will be our Defense team against Amador's Prosecution.
Please congratulate all members of the mock trial team for their dedication and hard work over the last five months and we hope that some of you will come Thursday night to show support for our Defense Team in our bid to go to the state championships. Congratulations to the entire team - and you know there's practice at 3p.m. today.
Feb. 10, 2010
Congratulations to the Mock Trial Defense Team which once again scored a convincing victory last night winning against Granada's Prosecution team and earning 54% of the points awarded by scoring attorneys. O'Dowd is now in first place with a 3-0 record and the highest percentage point totals of any team. Tomorrow night is the last of the four competition trials as our Prosecution team takes on Kipp King's Defense. Last night's win assures O'Dowd a place in the semi-final round next Tuesday night. Congratulations to the entire team!
Feb. 3, 2010
Congratulations to the Mock Trial Defense Team which scored a convincing victory over Skyline's Prosecution Team last night in the first competition round of the annual Mock Trial competition scoring 57% of the points awarded by scoring attorney/judges. PreTrial Attorney Marina Chrys and Trial Attorneys Marie Rice, Ben Frazier and Rachel Sklar, along with witnesses Laura Penaranda, Christian Tachiera and Woody Yilma put together an outstanding case and won the acquittal of the defendant Jordan Bratton played by Jackie Bordessa and were ably assisted by our bailiff, Ed Boscacci who as the judge's assistant kept the courtroom under control. This win puts Bishop O'Dowd in a tie for first place with the 4 other schools' teams which also won their matches. Next up is the Prosecution Team which will face Granada's defense team in round 2 of the competition. Congratulations again to the Defense team members and good luck to the Prosecution.
The Mock Trial team is supported by the Forensics Competitive Team Fund. Donations may be made online on the O’Dowd website by putting the Fund’s name in the “comments box” under “endowment fund.”