Poly High Wins Fourth Consecutive Mock Trial
Riverside Poly High School held off a determined push by challenger Santiago High School of Corona to win the Riverside County Mock Trial championship. The win in the championship round, played out in downtown Riverside’s historic courthouse, gave Poly a fourth consecutive championship in the county’s event.
Earlier in the day, Santiago defeated Woodcrest Christian High School of Riverside for the right to play the championship round, while Poly advanced by defeating a team from Temecula Valley High School. Both Temecula Valley and Woodcrest Christian are former county champions (winning in 1998 and 1999, respectively). It was Santiago’s first time playing for the championship.
In Mock Trial, teams from two high schools act out a fictional criminal case in court, with one school taking the role of the prosecution and the other the defense. Volunteer panels of real attorneys sit as juries and score the contests, giving top marks to the most persuasive and knowledgable teams. This year, more than 400 students from 22 schools took part in the county competition, which is jointly sponsored by the Riverside County Office of Education and the Riverside County Bar association. Saturday’s championship round was played out before a capacity crowd of more than 100 in Department 1, the showcase courtroom restored to vintage splendor in the 1903 historic courthouse. Another 60 spectators watched the mock proceedings via closed circuit TV in an adjacent courtroom.
Appellate Court Justice Thomas Hollenhorst presided over the final round from the bench. The panel of scoring attorneys seated in the jury box included Assistant District Attorney and former state legislator Rod Pacheco, County Public Defender Gary Windom, Superior Court Judges Gloria Trask and Sharon Waters, and prominent local attorney Steve Harmon. Harmon served as attorney coach to Riverside’s Arlington High School in 1994, the year that school won the national Mock Trial championship in Chicago.
Poly advanced to represent Riverside County in the state Mock Trial championship. That competition was staged in Riverside March 18-20.