DBHS MOCK TRIAL TEAM IN LA COUNTY’S TOP 8!
Our Brahmas did it again Tuesday night, November 19, and will be heading back to the LA County Court House Thursday, November 21, to compete in the TOP 8!
Summation of Tuesday evening by Coaches Latitia Thomas & Margaret Ku
“The thing about a competition where you only end up meeting at most 7 competitors out of 100, you never know if you are going to face one of the best or one of the less good…. Last night we competed against San Marino HS. This is a historically talented team that we have faced in previous years and have had a very positive working relationship with for over 20 years. They were excellent last night. At the end of the competition the judge, a VERY experienced judge for both real and Mock law sincerely proclaimed that it was one of the best trials he had ever watched and that both teams were so evenly matched. We took the bus ride home both exuberant for the level of excellence that we had achieved (truly a PB for virtually every member of our Defense team) and the misgiving that we likely were at the end of our season…
But, nope, WE WON!
It was the rare occasion of substance beating out style…not a common occurrence in life or fake law.
The night began with our Pretrial attorney, sophomore Annie Kung, making the motion to suppress. So much of it must be given extemporaneously and keeping the same tempo, conviction and tone while answering questions to match that demonstrated in the prepared part of a speech is tough. Opposing counsel had every word memorized, no notes at all. He had great presence, tone and tempo...what he didn’t have was an argument that rebutted Annie’s. Annie, on the other hand, had notes that she didn’t use and a rebuttal that was clearly created on the fly to rebut opposing counsel…Substance over style!
For opening argument, both teams had no notes. Sophia Tian gave an opening that has been completely changed several times…in the last few days. Both teams used no notes for their openings, both were well delivered but Sophia’s content was exactly what an opening was supposed to be…If you know Sophia you know she is NOT loud. Every word she utters must have great meaning to make up for the volume that is lacking (for us old people, imagine EF Hutton, when he talks people listen).
We were defense so our cross examinations came first. Our three trial attorneys were off the charts. Sean Yu, Sophia Tian and Mia Artale. If you want to see conviction in tone and absolute poker face, you gotta watch Mia Artale. If you know Mia you gotta know, poker face is not her normal state of being…until now! She is polite but assertive, polished yet spontaneous. And, Sean Yu, roasting the poor victim of a supposed kidnapping by impeaching him (pointing out to the court that his testimony in response to Sean’s cross question was counter to his witness statement), brutal.
Again, this was against a team whose EVERY attorney had ALL of their questions memorized and used NO notes…..we weren’t that polished…but, the downside to memorizing is, it is hard to edit on the fly if things don’t go as expected. We did not give them what they expected.
When our witnesses were called it was magic. First is freshman Arvind Anwar, playing forensic expert Dr. Palmer. He is not tall. But he has a manner about him, he is wicked smart, confident and such a great speaker. I wish you all could have heard him answer his LAST cross question. He left his cross attorney speechless when he contradicted that attorney (in reference to tire tread depth of a tire track matching the defendants tire) and the attorney realizing there was nothing to be done about it. That accounts for Arvind getting the highest witness scores of the night.
Next, Cassandra Oh, newly elected member of city council and spouse of the defendant. She is so believable as the loving supportive spouse. Her spouse, the defendant, is played by Doria Chen. I talk about them together because they both are involved in so many other DBHS activities and they miss a lot of practice. But they have devoted themselves to mastering their parts. They are both so convincing in their roles. Like any gifted actor, it isn’t the memorized parts that are a test to acting, it is the unpredictable cross examination where acting skills are demonstrated. These two are in character for every question. They are never rattled, flustered…test it out, ask Doria if she drives on dirt roads with her windows down or ask Cassandra how supportive her spouse is as a campaign manager.
Finally, Michelle Li, playing a local podcaster, was called. If you want to laugh…the direct testimony of this wanna be celebrity is too much. I must keep my head down during her testimony, so nobody sees me chocking back laughter. The other team clearly loved her, they named her MVP.
Finally, Sean Yu gave the closing argument. Not as memorized as one would have hoped but that is because he stuck in at least four quotes from the night’s competition. Contentious occurrences that were argued in objections or during a cross. Every person judging us, if they had been paying attention, would have known that those quotes he used were not in his closing prior to last night. The prosecution had a beautifully delivered, dramatic closing but it didn’t reflect what had happened in court…again, substance over style…
Our one exception: the bailiff played by Jayden Choi. He is both substance and style. Our very experienced judge, whose hearing is not what it once was, commented immediately after Jayden called the court to order, that he hoped that everybody would speak like the bailiff. The judge was not the only one to appreciate Jayden as he was the only performer last night who got a perfect score from all four scorers.
We perform tomorrow, Thursday, Nov 21.
Thank you for being so supportive of us coaches and the members of the team. We really appreciate it.
Finally, in the photo, the judge was not the presiding judge for last night. It is the honorable justice, Charles Clay who has been helping us this season. He watched the competition last night, so we took a moment to sneak in some pictures. We are SO appreciative of his time!”