Teams from four area high schools on Saturday will make their case to be named No. 1 in the 37th annual Riverside County Mock Trial Competition.
The semi-final and final rounds of the monthlong contest will be held at the Riverside Historic Courthouse in downtown Riverside, where students from MLK High School in Riverside, Murrieta Valley High School, Poly High School in Riverside and Valley View High School in Moreno Valley will work to rack up enough points to finish first.
An awards ceremony will follow, with medals furnished to the top team, the runner-up team and the third place team, according to the county Office of Education, which is sponsoring the contest along with the Constitutional Rights Foundation, the Riverside County Bar Association and the Superior Court.
More than 450 students from two dozen schools entered the competition, taking on the roles of prosecutors, defense attorneys, clerks and investigators.
The county began holding student-level mock trials in 1983. Roughly 14,500 youths have participated since then, according to organizers.
This year’s contest challenges participants to successfully argue the fictitious case of People v. Klein, involving a “swatting” incident in which a disgruntled ex-employee of a restaurant allegedly makes a false report of a crime-in-progress to send first responders to a former co-worker’s residence in a retaliatory act.
Student teams consist of 8-25 youths, and contestants are given an allotted time, generally four to six minutes, at each stage of a proceeding, including opening and closing statements and cross-examinations.
Practicing attorneys and judges assess students’ performance and award points in accordance with criteria established for the competition.
Students from public and private high schools are permitted to take part. Last year’s winning team was MLK High.
After the final round, the highest-scoring team will go on to represent the county at the State Mock Trial Competition, slated for March 22-24 in Sacramento.
More information is available at www.rcoe.us/student-events/mock-trial.