Monday evening, November 28, 2022, our DBHS Mock Trial team competed in the top 8, quarterfinal round for the LA County Mock Trial competition. Unfortunately, we lost. 

They are scored by attorneys who watch the competition. The trial is adjudicated by an actual judge. Each individual student performance (direct, cross, opening, witness testimony and so on) is scored separately. The total points earned by each team is between 0 and 650 points. The score differential between DBHS and the opposing team that night was only 10 points. 

Regardless of the loss, it was still one of the best performances given by many of the Prosecution team members.

Ashley Cha: pretrial attorney, the most challenging position on the team. Ashley has struggled with different public speaking issues but last night you would never know it. She was constantly challenged by the judge to answer clarifying questions and she was unflappable. 

Tamim Hatim, Jeremiah Jung and Julienne Uy, last night's trial attorneys. Tamim gave an opening that was flawless, all three of them objected like professionals and the icing on the cake was Julienne Uy's closing. Her closing, 6 minutes long followed by a one-minute rebuttal, was like a how-to video on closing arguments. 

The witnesses for the Prosecution: Mia Artale (the victim, an actress in a Shakespearean production on a cruise ship whose jealous actor roommate is accused of pushing her with such force that her arm was broken in two places in the process of stealing a valuable ring that belonged to her), Neval Balik (a wealthy benefactor of cruise ship theater productions), Gloria Nien (expert jewelry appraiser who determined that the stolen ring was indeed William Shakespeare's), Chloe Zhuo (detective who investigated the theft of a William Shakespeare signet ring and arrested the defendant for robbery and battery).  If you know these students, it may surprise you to know that on the witness stand last night, each gave a true performance. Mia was a tortured victim, Neval was a wealthy older woman, Gloria WAS an expert (you have to see here talk like an Oxford graduate, it's amazing) and Chloe Zhuo yes and no mam'ed her way to perfection.

The judge agreed with Ashley Cha that the search conducted by the Detective was constitutional and the judge agreed that the defendant was guilty of all charges brought against her. The MVP of the night, as voted by the opposing team, was Julienne Uy.

Last week's Defense performance in the Top 16 round was equally spectacular.

Natalie Zhou is the pretrial attorney for the Defense. Natalie is BRILLIANT! She was arguing a virtually unwinnable Constitutional argument about voluntary consent to a search and she got the judge to agree with her every time she competed.

The trial attorneys for the Defense: Chloe Shafer, Vishu Sriram and Alexandra Chala. Vishnu and Alexandra received specific accolades from the judges. Vishnu Sriram was a witness last year and this year it wasn't obvious that he was going to excel as an attorney but, HE DID! Alexandra Chala was the LA County Prosecution Attorney of the Year last year and at the State Championships last year, Alexandra Chala was again Prosecution Attorney of the Year so, her EXCEPTIONAL performance this year was no surprise. 

The Defense witnesses: Johnny Kwong (head of security on the cruise ship), Julian Medina (expert for the defense who convincingly denounced the rings attachment to William Shakespeare), Lizzie Kim (the defendant and if you watched her you would be convinced that there is no way she intentionally hurt anybody and would never steal somebody's valuable ring), Hilary Hui (close friend of the defendant who might actually be the thief but you would intentionally be left in doubt after watching her performance) all did well but extra props for Hilary and Lizzie who are new to the team this year and EXTRA props to Julian Median who not only turned in Oscar worthy performances but who is also captain of color guard and had to daily juggle Mock Trial and color guard practice. 

The team worked so well together and had such sincere concern for one another. They devoted countless hours these past two months in daily after-school practices but also zoom practices, frequently without their coaches, striving to be the best they could be for one another. Their coaches, Latitia Thomas and Margaret Ku, are so proud of them.

They were so fortunate to have the assistance of Deputy DA, Angela Brunson. They would not have been as successful without her.