Over the last few months, the 19-member Mock Trial team has actively prepped, memorized and learned the nuances of a kidnapping case in preparation for the Santa Clara County Mock Trial Tournament that took place at the Office of Education as well as the county’s actual courthouse facility. In the end, they did better than any SHS team in years and reached the quarterfinals, losing to a traditionally strong team, Prospect High, on Feb. 6.
The tournament consisted of four preliminary rounds in which the prosecution and defense alternated and competed. For teams who win most of their rounds, they advance into quarterfinals, semifinals and eventually finals. Between the prosecution and defense teams, the team won the scoring in two preliminary contests, while still receiving high scores in the other two preliminaries, enough to advance them to the next level.
The first preliminary round featured the defense team against Fremont’s prosecution on Jan. 23. The Falcons won 429-374. The second round pitted the Saratoga prosecution against Homestead on Jan. 27; the contest ended in a 456-456 tie, with the tiebreaker going Saratoga’s way. The third round on Feb. 3 pitted Saratoga’s defense against Prospect’s prosecution, and Prospect narrowly won 413-409. The final preliminary round, with prosecution against Mountain View’s defense on Feb. 4, ended in a 506-481 loss. Even with the two defeats, the Falcons consistently earned high points, and thus advanced to the quarterfinals.
The quarterfinals, held on Feb. 6, occurred at the Downtown Santa Clara County Courthouse, while all of the prelims were held in the Santa Clara County Office of Education. Saratoga’s prosecution, pitted against Prospect’s defense, lost the quarterfinal, eliminating the Falcons from the competition. No final score was made public.
On Jan. 11, the Mock Trial team competed at the annual Santa Clara County Invitational. While not counted toward their official record, the invitational provided an opportunity for the team to practice and get feedback from judges. At the invitational, both prosecution and defense won their rounds, marking one of the best starts for Saratoga’s Mock Trial team in recent history.
This year’s fictional Mock Trial case was centered around the alleged kidnapping of Logan Gold, the political rival of Harper Dorais. The prosecution had to prove that Dorais’ partner, Taylor Alexander, was guilty of kidnapping Gold. Meanwhile, the defense argues that Alexander is innocent, and that Gold fabricated his kidnapping.
To help dissect the case and guide everyone in their roles, the team’s attorney coach, Christopher Van Meir, played a huge role in coaching proper trial techniques and tactics. Van Meir is a deputy public defender in San Jose with over 18 years under his belt.
“Throughout my career, I have trained a lot of public defenders and aspiring attorneys post bars,” Van Meir said. “I’m currently on an assignment where I don’t have quite as much access to that, and it was kind of nice to give back and also help motivate young [aspiring] attorneys.”
The team held tryouts in September, in which members audition for either an attorney or a witness. Based on their performance at tryouts, members are assigned roles.
“[The tryout] is not necessarily [about] who knows exactly what the format of mock trial is, because we can teach that, but who has the right inclinations,” senior co-president Ryan Heshmati said.
On both prosecution and defense, there were three attorneys, four witnesses and two pretrial attorneys. Defense pretrial attorneys were tasked with convincing the judge to exclude evidence from the round, while prosecution attorneys argued to keep the evidence — both pull precedent from past cases, and are tasked with comparing the facts of this case with those of previous cases, highlighting the good and pulling more favorable precedent for the bad. The pretrial section is weighted in a team’s final score.
Attorneys are entrusted with cross-examining opposing witnesses and showcasing the story of their own witnesses through questions. They train to rebut objections, the same as students would find in a mock trial in a history class (for example, with rules about using hearsay, argumentation, etc). It’s the attorney’s role to weave the narrative for the trial and convince the jury and judge in both the opening and closing statements.
Witnesses must memorize their statements and answer questions from both the prosecution and defense. Being a witness requires building character and adopting the characteristics of the real witness in the trial — every detail, from shaky hands showing nervousness to a hardened voice conveying confidence, is noted by the scorers.
“I think we did a really good job of being cohesive. From the defense perspective, we kept a theme, “once an actor, always an actor,” in our opening and within our closing,” Heshmati, captain of the defense team, said. “I think sticking with one cohesive story that we’re selling worked for us.”
After practices, senior Diya Kapoor — treasurer of the club and lead witness on prosecution — creates reels that the team posts on Instagram. The team gathers together to film videos to new trends, garnering over 4,000 views on some videos.
“I love making those [reels]. I think it’s one of my favorite new things that we’ve done this year. There’s a running joke that I’m not in the videos, but I’m just so busy. I love hanging out and bonding with everyone while filming the videos,” Kapoor said.
As they wrap up the season, the team — especially the seniors — are proud of how much progress they’ve made over the last four years. They’re looking forward to new energy carrying the team they’ve built far into the future.
“Over the years, our team has grown a lot in terms of participation and individual investment in the program,” co-president and prosecution captain Sharma said. “The team has a lot of potential, and I’m excited to watch it grow.”
The SHS Mock Trial team in ‘24-‘25:
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- Teacher Advisor: Assistant principal Matthew Torrens
- Attorney Coach: Christopher Van Meir
- Defense: Senior Ryan Heshmati, junior Lavanya Bose, sophomore Medha Sunkara
- Prosecution: Senior Aarushi Sharma, senior Caitlin Stoiber, sophomore Isabelle Jadali
- Defense Pretrial Attorneys: Sophomore Ayman Aribi, sophomore Neha Sharan
- Prosecution Pretrial Attorneys: Sophomore Sanyukta Ravishankar, sophomore Neha Menon
- Defense Witnesses: Senior Juhi Karamcheti, junior Sandy Vavrousek, sophomore Benjamin Kaganovich, sophomore Quinn Bossow
- Prosecution Witnesses: Senior Diya Kapoor, sophomore Ria Abraham, sophomore Nishi Menon, sophomore Jacqueline Chico
- Clerk/Bailiff and Understudies: Sophomore Misha Khairom and senior Clara Zhao
