Cape mock trial student places first at states

The Cape High mock trial team competed in the state-level competition in Wilmington Feb. 28 and March 1, facing off against 17 other teams from across the state.

Junior Lucy Tollett placed first in the courtroom journalism category, and the team, the only one from Sussex County, placed sixth overall in the competition.

Seniors Alivia Heers, Kieran Morrissey, Aidan Hudson and Anna Beck also received gavels, which were awarded to competitors who are named either Best Attorney or Best Witness in a given round. Beck and Morrissey served as attorneys, while Heers and Hudson served as witnesses.

“It was a really remarkable experience,” Morrissey said. “You work all year with the same case, you get to know that case really well, and then, even though it’s just two days of competition at the end, it’s really incredible to see it all come together. No matter how we place, it’s awesome to see how each of us do individually, and it’s a really fun experience.”

The case given to the students this year was a civil matter, revolving around a fictitious dispute at a Wilmington food court. It involved a security guard using a stun gun against a building employee during a confrontation over the employee parking in another person’s reserved parking spot. The employee who was hit by the stun gun was hospitalized for a broken hip and sued the food court operators for hiring the guard, claiming they failed to properly train him and do a proper background check.

Over four rounds, the teams alternated between arguing the plaintiff’s side and the defendant’s side. The top two teams then competed in the final round in front of a panel of judges, including the presiding Delaware Superior Court President Jan Jurden, who announced her retirement from the bench last year. 

According to a release from the Delaware Law Related Education Center, more than 180 members of the Delaware Bench and Bar volunteered as attorney coaches or judges for the state competition. Rather than deciding who won the case, the judges scored the teams on their legal and case-specific knowledge, their courtroom conduct and the effectiveness of their arguments.

Salesianum placed first overall and will be heading to Phoenix, Ariz., to represent Delaware in the national competition in May. Not only was it Salesianum’s first time winning the state title, but it was also the school’s first time making it to the final round of the state competition.

Wilmington Friends was the runner-up, followed by Newark Charter in third, Charter School of Wilmington in fourth and Tower Hill in fifth.

Tollett from Cape qualified for nationals with her first-place individual win, but she is unable to attend.

“The whole team worked so hard together,” Heers said. “Come competition time, we did amazing. We hit on everything. We had a couple of things to tweak, but we mainly just got good feedback.”

The Cape team comprises 18 students total – with 12 on the main roster – from grades 9-12.

“We really got close as a group, working with each other three times a week for four hours straight, and we all went and spent three nights at a hotel,” Heers said. “And we wouldn’t meet these people anywhere else, because we’re all from different grades. It’s really fun.”

“I think it’s really good for developing skills that you don’t really find in the classroom,” said junior Stephen Hart. “Especially public speaking and learning how to be concise and get your point across without rambling on. I think that’s really helpful for any job in the future.”