Washington Courts: Judicial News Report Detail

Students excel in court

"Court is now in session"

These words and a bang of a gavel began an intense two-day competition which tested the courtroom skills of more than 250 students from high schools across the state.

More than two dozen judges and 50 lawyers volunteered to hear their arguments and rate their performances as the student teams faced off against one another at the 1997 YMCA Mock Trial Championships. The event was held March 22-23 at the Thurston County Courthouse in Olympia.

When court finally adjourned at the end of the long--and for some, sleepless--weekend, Franklin High School won five rounds of trials and overcame cross-town-rival University Prep to take the state title. University Prep's second team took third place, and Fort Vancouver High School was fourth.

Other schools in the competition placed as follows: 5th place -Eatonville; 6th place - Walla Walla; 7th place - Central Kitsap; 8th place - Lynden; 9th place - Mountain View; 10th place - Ft. Vancouver J.V.; 11th place - Port Townsend; 12th place - Pasco; 13th place - Richland team 1; 14th place Timberline; 15th place - River Ridge; 16th place Richland team 2.

The case

Sixteen teams argued prosecution and defense sides of State of Washington v. Haines, a hypothetical case in which student lawyers argued whether defendant Pat Haines acted in self-defense when he shot and killed another man.

In the case, homeowner Pat Haines hires a high school dropout to work on his house. Haines is initially wary of having a "delinquent" in his home, after observing him carrying a knife. An argument ensues when Haines accuses the worker of stealing and deducts $100 from his paycheck. Haines draws a pistol and shoots the man dead.

The prosecution charges Pat Haines with two counts: Possession of an unregistered assault weapon, and voluntary manslaughter. In the pretrial motion, defense teams argued that Haines' Second Amendment rights protected Haines from prosecution on the first count. If the defense prevailed in the pretrial motion, the only charge at trial was manslaughter.

Under competition rules, teams were permitted to use only that evidence included in case materials. Students worked from a declaration of probable cause, signed affidavits, pre-trial motion material and trial exhibits. Each team supplied witnesses for their side of the argument and had at least two attorneys arguing the case. Witness testimony was limited to facts noted in affidavits.

Diverse teams and volunteers

Students represented high schools from across the state, assuming parts as prosecutors, witnesses, defendants, and defense attorneys. The high schools tried the case before real trial judges in real courtrooms. Practicing attorneys rated the performance of each team, deciding which teams won each of four preliminary rounds.

"I understand that the level of competition was keen this year," YMCA Mock Trial Coordinator Sue Anderson told Judicial News.

Twenty-six judges and commissioners volunteered to hear cases in the two-day, five round competition. Benton/Franklin County Superior Court Judge Craig J. Matheson, chaired the competition.

Superior court judges Jay V. White, Roger A. Bennett, Sergio Armijo, Don L. McCulloch, Edwin Poyfair and M. Karlynn Haberly joined commissioners Patricia Hall Clark, Scott A. Reiman and David B. Hallin.

District court judges Susan J. Owens, Robert E. Stead, Clifford L. Stilz, Charles J. Delaurenti II, E.T. Leverette, Victoria Meadows, Douglas Goelz, Susan A. Dubuisson, Eileen A. Kato, Monica Benton, Thomas E. Kelly, and W. Daniel Phillips, heard cases, with municipal court judges Steven R. Buzzard, Jean Cotton, Elizabeth Verhey, and Andrew Dolan.

The final round

The final round pitted Franklin defense against University Prep's prosecution team, which was heard by Washington Supreme Court Justice Richard B. Sanders. Three audience raters--Kathleen Hopkins, president-elect of the state bar's young lawyer's division, Murray Kleist, named 1996 trial lawyer of the year by the Washington State Trial Lawyers Association, and Thurston County District Court Commissioner Brett Buckley--graded the performance of the teams.

At the closing awards ceremony, Franklin High School student Kyle Tada was declared the best overall attorney, and Eatonville student Brent LaDoux was rated best witness. Franklin coach Richard Nagel said his students hopes to travel to Nashville, Tennessee May 8-11 to compete in a national mock trial competition.