Wyoming Seminary Mock Trial Team Wins District Competition

Wyoming Seminary Mock Trial Team: Standing from left are: senior Kevin Boyle, senior Luke Rogers, advisor Brian Corcoran, Esq.; senior Mona Lotfipour, senior Casey Klaips, senior Ryan Barber, senior Callie Hughes, junior Alex Wise, sophomore Sonali Varhade, senior Katie Corson, senior Jeffrey Kratz, junior Neil O’Donnell, advisor Neil O’Donnell, Esq. Seated: advisor Adam Carlisle.

The Wyoming Seminary Mock Trial team recently placed first in the 2008 District High School Mock Trial Competition in Wilkes-Barre. The competition, sponsored by the Young Lawyers Division of the Pennsylvania Bar Association, provides high school students with a firsthand experience of the American judicial system.

Mock trial teams argue a case before a judge and a jury of local lawyers and are evaluated based on their opening and closing arguments, presentation, poise and articulation, direct and cross examinations, control of facts and knowledge of Mock Trial rules of law and exceptions. This year, two Sem teams (Blue and White) competed against five other schools in the mock trial kidnapping case of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. Jaden Sinclair.           

Each team competed twice, once as the prosecution and once as the defense.  In the final round, Sem’s blue team, advised by Neil O’Donnell, Esq. and Mock Trial coach Adam Carlisle, defeated MMI and earned a spot in the regional competition. Sem will next face Abington Heights High School, the District III champion on Tuesday, March 18 in the Federal Courthouse.

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