Pretend lawyers, playing for real stakes

The Cape Elizabeth Mock Trial team heads to New Mexico seeking national recognition

CAPE ELIZABETH — Cape Elizabeth High School senior Katie Page was at the podium for only a few minutes Thursday, during a dry run as defense attorney, when the prosecutor, played by sophomore Kevin Hare, jumped to his feet.

“Objection. Relevance.” he shouted, much to the apparent relief of senior Claire Muscat, who Page had squirming in the witness chair. But Page did not hesitate.

“The question of a witness’ character is always relevant,” she said,coolly, without missing a beat, as she turned toward a table set up in one corner of the library to represent the judge’s bench.

At that, Cape Elizabeth attorney Richard O’Meara, in his role as judge, stepped in. As he looked toward Hare, his eyes seemed to say, “Nice try,” but his words – “Overruled” – said, “Sit back down.”

Following daily practice sessions last week, Hare and nine other Cape students boarded a plane Wednesday, bound for the 2012 National High School Mock Trial Championship, to be held May 3-6 in Albuquerque, N.M. It’s the teams second consecutive trip to nationals in an event which, as much as any other, participants say, preps them for their post-high school lives, even when career choices have nothing to do with the law.

‘It’s kind of hard to explain what mock trial is,” said Muscat, during a break in Thursday’s practice session. “But, I can say I’ve really learned the importance of putting time and hard work into things.”

“It really helps you with public speaking,” said Hare. “Before I joined mock trial, I was super scared to go in front of the class to give an oral presentation. Now, I don’t even think about.”

“Mock trial gives you poise, and teaches you how to present yourself in public,” agreed Page.

“It feels really good to realize that you can say something meaningful and make a good argument, if you’re prepared,” said Muscat’s twin sister, Emily.

“Plus, it makes you feel really smart,” joked Page.

Representing Cape along with Page, Hare and the Muscat sisters are seniors Will McCarthy and Chelsey Whynot, junior Nolan Morris, sophomores Dorothy Janick and Jack Tierney and freshman Matt Denison, along with junior varsity team member Aubrey O'Meara, attending as an observer.

That Cape’s mock trial team even has a JV squad is a testament to its recent success. More than 30 students were part of the state-title team this year, a 50 percent growth spurt from 2010. Team adviser Mary Page, a social studies teacher at the high school, credits the team’s success in reclaiming the state title from Hampden Academy, which had held it since 2003, for fueling interest in the team.

“When something is successfully, people naturally want to be a part of it,” she said.

For mock trial, Cape’s triumph came along just as the event was reeling, both locally and statewide.

Early in 2010, the Maine Bar Association announced that it could no longer solely sponsor the program, founded in 1993, as it had the previous five years. In response, a group of teachers, parents and individual attorneys raised $15,000 to create the nonprofit Friends of Mock Trial, which kept the event off life support and allowed students the chance to continue learning about the law by arguing hypothetical cases in front of real judges and attorneys.

Meanwhile, members of the Cape mock trial team spent the spring of 2010 using the formidable debate skills they’d mastered as pretend attorneys to argue for their team’s survival before the school board, which was considering a cut in funding.

Two state championships later, Cape students look to Albuquerque as a chance to improve on their 34^th-place finish (out of 48 teams) at last year’s national event. That, they say, will prove that the second win, scored in December at the Maine Supreme Judicial Court in Portland, was no fluke.

“There is such an emphasis on athletics, which is great, but it’s nice when something else is able to be nationally ranked like this,” said Emily Muscat.

“One thing that is nice is that we’ve sort of given mock trial a really good reputation in our school,” said Clair Muscat.

Morris is one of the student’s who joined the team this year in the wake of its recent success.

“I actually quit the football team to join the mock trial team,” he said. “Among other reasons, I was drawn by the obvious closeness of the team and I’m also interested in law. It’s something I’m considering pursuing, possibly into college and later.”

But not everyone uses mock trial as a springboard to a law career.

“I’ve decided it’s not for me,” said Clair Muscat. “The problem with being a lawyer is that I get too heated, and too angry when people don’t understand my objections. I’ve learned I don’t think I could be a lawyer.”

“So, we have channeled Clair’s lack of self-control,” joked McCarthy, with whom she’s occupied the witness stand on both championship teams.

“I really enjoy the acting and role-playing and reacting to questions as that person would,” said Muscat.

And, unlike the football team, there are no quarterbacks in mock trial. McCarthy points out that, to be a success, all players must complement each other. Cases are decided not on who “wins” in the eyes of the judge, but by which team presents the best argument. In order for the attorneys to present successfully, those playing the witnesses must make react in a clear and compelling way.

That’s particularly hard, says McCarthy, because there is no script.  

At the state competition, teams worked a civil case pitting an Indian tribe against a uranium mining company. The tribe claimed breach of contract because the mine, which it leased, tainted water sources as the company expanded operations. There was no pre-determined winner in the case. It was up to students playing the attorneys to make arguments as best they could while reacting to witness responses.

The case the team has been prepping for nationals is even more open-ended. The 120-plus-page packet the team received April 1 is loosely based on the crime novel, “The Sinister Pig,” by New Mexico author Tony Hillerman. That book starts with the discovery of an unidentified corpse in a natural gas field in the San Juan Basin and eventually spreads to involve Navajo Tribal Police, diverted oil and gas revenues, Washington, D.C., insiders and illegal drugs.

For the pretend trial resulting from the novel, students got a case summary, initial complaints, witness statements and various exhibits, along with a review of the relevant laws and legal rules, but not much else.

“The scenario is designed to be down-the-middle enough so that each side has something to argue,” explained O’Meara, a lawyer with Murray, Plumb & Murray in Portland. O’Meara was a longtime legal adviser for mock trial teams in Gray-New Gloucester and Falmouth before he took on Cape when his daughters joined the team.

“The most amazing thing for me,” said O’Meara, “is to see how incredibly the students progress during the year, scored not on merits of the case before the ‘judge’ but on the performance of the entire team. It really takes developing a mastery of all the legal rules and precedents involved.”

“You learn a lot about the legal system,” agreed Janick. “Before mock trial, I had no idea what hearsay was, I didn’t know what a cross-examination was. I was so naive. But you learn so much about it. It’s very interesting to learn what’s admissible as evidence and what’s not and just how the legal system works.

To see students learn all of that, while also playing multiple roles to weave together disparate bits of information into a sound legal case, with openings and closings, direct and cross examinations based on little more than a central theme, is, O’Meara said, something to behold, and the reason he gives his time to mock trial.

"It doesn't matter if you're not going to be a lawyer,” he said. “Students in mock trial learn the power of focus and teamwork, concentration and study, public speaking and thinking on their feet. All of those skills are transferable to whatever they do in life."

“And on top of all that,” said Katie Page. “It makes you feel really good when you crush the other side.”