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 34th-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.”
