by Caitlin Kawaguchi, news editor

The mock trial team was on the edge of their seats, awaiting the decision.  But for once it was not a verdict of innocent or guilty.

When Cal was declared the Contra Costa Mock Trial champions last month, it was the first time Cal had won county and gone on to the state competition since 1996.

“Everyone just stood up with excitement and cheered, applauded and hugged,” said junior Alex Petterson, a member of the team for three years.

Cal had another reason to cheer on March 26 when it was announced that the 19 members of the team earned sixth place out of 32 teams at the Constitutional Rights Foundation State Championships in Riverside.

“I think we did even better than we expected,” said  sophomore Karishma Pareek, a second-year pretrial attorney.

Miramonte, the team which has gone to state for Contra Costa County the past four years, has never placed, she said.

Cal is the first school from Contra Costa to be a quarterfinalist at state since Northgate in 2007.  The team accomplished this with a record of 3-1 in Riverside on March 24-25.  After losing its opening trial on a judge’s tiebreaker to the Orange County champion, Cal won all three of its trials on March 25.

“What the team accomplished this year was incredible,” said teacher coach Brian Barr, noting the team went 10-1 in its trials.

Mock trial is a nationwide program where teams are given information on a case and act out a trial.  Students are each assigned a part, such as an attorney or witness, and act in that role for the trial.

“We are scored based on our performance, as well as our content,” said Alex.  “We are also judged on how well we are able to interpret the law and present the case.”

Each team has half of its members in roles on the defending side, and half on the prosecution side.  In competition, the defense  faces a prosecution team from another school, and vice-versa.

While the facts of the case are given to the teams, there is no script.  Teams treat what they are given as if it was real case information.

“This year we had two charges: assault with a deadly weapon and cyberbullying of a student,” said senior co-captain Shezaf Reif, a three-year prosecution attorney.

To prove those counts, attorneys rely on witnesses.

“I was the (detective) this year for prosecution,” said junior Eric Stein, a two-year team member.  “Basically I had to prove that the defendant was the one who sent messages to the victim.”

The witnesses must be informed about their character and know the details of their witness statement, as they are questioned by both an attorney from both their team and the opposing team.

The most difficult part about being a witness is the cross examination by the other team, because you don’t know what questions the attorney will ask you and you have to think quickly to answer in a way that will help your team, said freshman alternate witness Ravid Reif.

Team members agreed they didn’t know who would win until their name was called.

“The final round was really close,” Gunjan said of the county fianls.  “We weren’t expecting it to go either way, so it was really exciting when we won.”

At state, the team competed in four trials over two days. Trials take between two and three hours, but at the county level, teams have around a week in between trials.

Having multiple trials in a row made it more tiring and stressful, but it was also exciting just being at state, agreed team members.

“Just the feeling of it, knowing you’re at state, everything is amplified,” said Eric.

Even though the competition was intense, there was a friendly atmosphere and everybody was sportsmanlike, said Shezaf.

Gunjan and Karishma, next year’s captains, are already looking forward to mock trial again in the fall.

“Hopefully we can go to state again, that would be nice,” said Gunjan.  “I have a totally different perspective now and am excited to help new members next year.”

Shezaf is confident that the new captains will be excellent leaders for the team next year.

“I think Karishma and Gunjan are very responsible,” she said.“They will do a good job holding up our reputation.”