High school students compete in mock trial

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By CLARENCE MABIN / Lincoln Journal Star

It was a pretend criminal case, with a pretend defendant, pretend witnesses and pretend attorneys. Yet the emotions that surfaced inside a Lancaster County courtroom Wednesday at the end of the two-day state high school mock trial competition were decidedly real.

“I’m so excited,” beamed 15-year-old Rachel Kroon shortly after her team from Omaha Skutt Catholic High School claimed the championship. “It’s the best feeling in the world.”

A panel of real-life attorneys, acting as jurors, returned a split decision in favor of Skutt over Ainsworth High School.

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Facing the jury, Omaha Skutt's Rachel Kroon presents opening arguments as judge Lyle Strom makes some notes during the mock trial competition. (Robert Becker)

Skutt will represent Nebraska in the national mock trial championship in Dallas in May.

The Nebraska competition, sponsored by the Nebraska State Bar Foundation and held in Lancaster County District Court, included teams from 12 high schools across the state. The teams were regional champions and they are among 145 mock trial teams from 74 Nebraska schools this year, said Doris Huffman, executive director of the foundation.

Competing teams took opposing sides in a fictional criminal case, state of Nebraska v. Willie Flounder. Panels of jurors rated the teams on their opening and closing statements, direct and cross-examination of witnesses, and the performances of the witnesses.

Daniel Jensen, 17, who, along with Kroon and Peter Wostenberg, acted as defense lawyers, said the team had been working on the Flounder case since August, sometimes as prosecutors, sometimes as defense counsel.

This week’s competition was trying in more ways than one.

“It’s probably one of the most difficult things I’ve ever done,” Jensen said. “You have to be able to think on your feet.”

In the case, written by a volunteer committee of Nebraska lawyers for the competition, Flounder stands accused of attempted murder after shooting another high school student, Deon Niedermeyer, with a shotgun in the school parking lot.

Flounder had said Niedermeyer had repeatedly bullied her.

At trial, her attorneys claimed the bullying caused Flounder to snap emotionally, and they argued their client was not guilty by reason of insanity.

The prosecution team contended Flounder knew right from wrong when she fired the shotgun. Her actions in the school parking lot were the product of hatred, not mental illness, Chris Bartak of Ainsworth said in his closing statement.

“This was a planned, deliberate attack,” he said.

Trial testimony included statements from Skutt student Matt Kroon, posing as psychologist P.T. Partee for the defense, and Sami Johnson of Ainsworth, who was the state’s expert witness, Dr. Pearson.

Kroon (as Dr. Partee) testified that Flounder was suffering a “brief psychotic disorder” when she fired the weapon. “Dr. Pearson,” on the other hand, said she saw signs that Flounder was feigning mental illness when they met after the shooting.

Other witnesses included Flounder, her close friend, Robin Kirkowski, and Niedermeyer.

Both teams showed they had done their homework in the law, often raising timely objections to one witness or another’s testimony.

U.S. Senior District Judge Lyle Strom of Omaha presided over the trial.

Between the closing arguments and announcement of the winner, the judge praised both sides, but also offered some sage, kindly advice.

Jensen, he said, did “too much walking” in front of the jurors during his closing statements. Bartak didn’t do enough, the judge said.

“You don’t have to stand there like a zombie,” Strom said.

Creighton Law School Dean Pat Borchers said the mock trial is good experience even for students who have no plans to enter the legal profession.

Borchers is an attorney-coach for Skutt, and his daughter, Erin, played Flounder.

“Most of them are not going to be lawyers,” he said. “And that’s OK. ... They’re developing confidence and communication skills that (will be useful) in all kinds of ways.”

Reach Clarence Mabin at cmabin@journalstar.com or 473-7234 .