Monta Vista High Moves on to Finals of Mock Trial Tournament

Monta Vista High School will face Willow Glen High School in the final Thursday night of this year’s high school Mock Trial Tournament.

Heading into the tournament both teams are undefeated. The winner will represent the county in the state tournament.

The fictional case the teams will argue is the child of the mayor of a fictional California city gets charged with a hit-and-run accident with the prosecution saying the defendant ran a stop sign while texting. A child riding a bicycle was struck and permanently injured as a result, and the defendant fled the scene.

The defense will argue that another person in the car was actually driving and that neither occupant realized they had struck a bicyclist.

Complicating matters is the pre-trial issue of whether an apology by the defendant to the investigating officer should be excluded because the arresting officer failed to administer Miranda warnings.

The schools’ teams of up to nine students are made up of both prosecution and defense teams and include one pre-trial and three trial attorneys, four witnesses and one court staffer.

Judges hearing the case are real judges and real attorneys act as scorers.

The program began in September with more than 20 local public and private schools participating.

The final will be held Thursday, Feb. 28, at the Historic Old Courthouse, 61 N. 1st Street, San Jose, in the Ceremonial Courtroom, beginning at 6 p.m.

The program is sponsored by law offices of Rossi, Hamerslough, Reischl & Chuck (cq) and AccessData Group, and co-hosted by the Santa Clara County Office of Education, Santa Clara County Bar Association and the Santa Clara County Courts with over 45 state court judges and 150 attorneys volunteering.