The Mock Trial team had its first competition of the 2021-22 season against Cor Jesu and Lutheran South this week, but the trial was in Zoom format. With the first competition under their belt, the team looks to once again win state for back-to-back years. 

Mock Trial combines both law and acting for the competitions. On the law side, each team has three to four student lawyers who present the case and question witnesses. Over on the acting side, each team has three students who each play a witness. After practice and scrimmages, teams face competition in Zoom courtrooms with a judge and two jury members. 

For this year’s case, plaintiff Justice Miller is suing the Jace Talent Agency for wrongful termination. At the heart of the case is the question of whether talent agent Justice Miller caused public embarrassment after a scuffle with a tabloid reporter, Rory Hayes, who got up in the face of Miller’s client, movie star Brooklyn Adler. The witnesses for the plaintiff include talent agent Justice Miller, statistics professor Haven St. James, and movie star Brooklyn Adler. The witnesses for the defense include entertainment industry analyst Shiloh Knight, the president of Jace Talent Agency Briar Secord, and gossip columnist Rory Hayes.

This year’s Mock Trial club has two teams. SLUH White (Varsity) faced one of Cor Jesu’s teams as the plaintiff while SLUH Blue (Junior Varsity), as the defense, faced Lutheran South. 

In preparation for the trial, coaches Anne Marie Lodholz and SLUH alum Timothy Weaks helped the team get ready.

“Attorneys work with their witnesses to come up with a set of questions, a script in essence,” said Lodholz. “Once we develop those sets of questions, we scrimmage each other or other schools.”

For team White (the plaintiff), the lawyers consisted of seniors Peter James, Jack Ryback, Tag Arens, and sophomore Grayson Stevenson. The witnesses included senior Eli Dernlan as Justice Miller, junior Christopher St. John as Brooklyn Adler, and sophomore Ian Taylor as Haven St. James.

“The trial went great, we did well despite some last-minute changes in our roster and we were all able to persevere and do very well,” said Stevenson.

“The varsity team fared very well with their strongest performances of the night on cross-examination of our opponent's witnesses,” said Weaks. “The judge and jurors gave the team plenty of feedback directly after the trial. They were very impressed by the team's level of preparedness and ability to argue on their feet when objections were made.”

For team Blue (the defense), the lawyers consisted of sophomore Patrick Busch, freshman Matteo Rivera, and freshman Drew Hawley. The witnesses were sophomore Keller Maher as Shiloh Knight, sophomore Declan Richards as Briar Secord, and freshman Patrick Jones as Rory Hayes.

“(Lutheran South’s) attorneys, in my opinion, were very good in front of the camera, but their lawyers weren’t as practiced with objections,” said Lodholz. “Our lawyers really shone with their understanding of objections. Our legal understanding of theory is always our strength. That is in debt to our really great attorney coaches like Tim Weaks. I was really impressed … (SLUH) knew when to object, they knew what objection to make, and they knew how to very concisely articulate why that objection applied.”

“In the future, I hope that people will be inclined to join and lend a helping hand wherever they are able,” said Stevenson. “We were a little short-staffed compared to last year and it would be amazing to see people take an active role in the club.”

“I thought it was really fun to watch the guys enjoy themselves,” said Lodholz. “You work and work and work for a trial and then you finally have it and they get to hang out together and pick up dinner. It was fun to finally watch them enjoy that.”