SAN JOSE, CA –The Santa Clara County High School Mock Trial Tournament concluded on Wednesday, February 13, when the final two teams—Saint Francis and Prospect High Schools—faced off in "The People v. Klein" a fictional criminal case and trial of Reagan Klein, a young adult resident of the fictional town of East Flamingo, California. Reagan is charged with two felony counts: making a false report of an emergency (in this case, commonly referred to as "swatting") and making a criminal threat.
After seven rounds of competition and a final round, which lasted over two hours, Prospect High School emerged victoriously. Their success marks the first win for this school in four years.
The Prospect High School team will advance to compete against 37 county winners at the state tournament in the 38th Annual California Mock Trial Finals on March 22-24 in Sacramento.
This year, the Santa Clara County Mock Trial Tournament featured over 500 students from 22 high schools.
The winning team included: Blake Biala, Eula Billaut, Amelia Ditzler, Maral Khoyazim, Vatsal Kumar, Carmen Le, Casey Lei, Aniket Mahajan, Ashley Oh, Matthew Pendo, Chithra Rajan, Eric Scoles, Deepika Senthil, Shanaz Shakur, Nidhi Shinde, Athena Shiravi, Akshay Thakur, Eric Wang, and Mia Wercinski.
The team was coached by Stephen Smith (Teacher), Marisa Cantone (Teacher), and Dan Taylor (Attorney).