Courtroom Success Takes WSU Mock Trial Teams to California

Photo caption: During WSU Mock Trial Team practice, “attorney” Miriam Kasaika addresses the court. Seated at counsel table (l-r) are Dan Taitingfong, Rhyan Anderson and  Ian Stamme. Watching in the back- ground is Jared Reams. Photograph by Tim Marsh.

The WSU Mock Trial Club will send two teams to the American Mock Trial Association’s (AMTA) March Opening Round of the National Championship Tournament hosted by the University of California, Irvine. The tournament will be held in Newport Beach Harbor Justice Center, in Newport Beach, Calif.

Three WSU teams competed at the regional tournament in Portland, Ore., Feb. 13-15 among a field of 22 teams from 12 universities including Stanford University, Arizona State University, University of California, Berkeley, Weber State University, Reed College, University of Portland, Portland State University and state rivals University of Washington, Eastern Washington University, Central Washington University, and Gonzaga University.

Teams Crimson and Gray both qualified to move on in the competition, each compiling a 5-3 record. This is the first time WSU has qualified two teams to advance out of the regional tournament to the next round.

John Polonis, a political science major from Kirkland, Wash., earned an All-Regional Attorney Award, and Ross Steele, an Honors College member and biology major from Moscow, Idaho, received an All-Regional Witness Award.

Members of the Crimson and Gray teams are now preparing for Drew Walton v. Blitz News Network, a hypothetical case—involving a gubernatorial candidate, a professor, a gun and a live newscast—that they will take to trial in California.

In addition to individual preparation, “The two teams are working hard scrimmaging each other twice a week,” said Mock Trial Club advisor and associate professor of political science Mitch Pickerill. “It is a pretty intense practice schedule, especially right now in the middle of midterm exams.”

Pickerill said the students were also busy fundraising so that both teams could make the trip.

If the teams succeed in California they will be eligible to travel to Des Moines, Iowa, in April for the AMTA National Championship Tournament.

Pickerill started the mock trial program at WSU in 2003. Criminal Justice graduate student Denise Mowder serves as assistant coach.

Support for the WSU Mock Trial program has been provided by WSU alumnus and Seattle attorney Dan Donlan; WSU’s Office of the President, College of Liberal Arts, Honors College and Department of Political Science; and U.S. District Court Judge James Robart, who hosted a January practice scrimmage in his Seattle courtroom.

Photograph by Tim Marsh. During WSU Mock Trial Team practice, “attorney” Miriam Kasaika addresses the court. Seated at counsel table (l-r) are Dan Taitingfong, Rhyan Anderson and Ian Stamme. Watching in the background is Jared Reams.