Washington Courts: News and Information

2015 Washington State High School Mock Trial Champion: Seattle Prep

OLYMPIA—MARCH 30, 2015 —Seattle Prep took top honors this Sunday as Washington’s 2015 champion of the statewide YMCA Mock Trial Competition. The team is now eligible to compete for the national Mock Trial title in Raleigh, North Carolina in May, a title they won in 2014.

Washington Supreme Court Justice Mary Yu presided over the championship trial in Olympia with Franklin High School and Seattle Prep of King County competing for the statewide title.   A gallery of photographs of the event can be found online at: http://bit.ly/1HXvI8s   

The top ten finalists of the competition are as follows:

The Best Attorney Award went to Molly McCarthy (Seattle Prep). The Best Witness Awards went to Evan Sarantinos (Seattle Prep), Ian Phillips (Archbishop Murphy), and Chase Jackson (Camas High School).

A total of 24 high school teams from across the state competed for the title in a three-day, four-round competition this weekend at the Thurston County Courthouse, arguing the prosecution and defense sides of a fictitious criminal trial based on the Edward Snowden case regarding release of classified information.

This is the 28th year for the YMCA Mock Trial program, which began in 1987. Mock Trial is part of the YMCA’s Youth & Government program, which helps students experience democracy in action. Mock Trial allows students to participate in true-to-life courtroom drama before real judges in real courtrooms, gaining an understanding of the law and the role of the judiciary.

PROGRAM CONTACTS: Seattle Prep Head Coach Andy McCarthy, 206-931-1058 (cell); Judge Robert Lewis, Mock Trial Program Chair at 360-397-2226; Sarah Clinton, Executive Director, YMCA Youth and Government Program at (360) 480-4838 (cell).