News
Summit team wins Mock Trial Invitational at UC
January 11, 2012
The Upper School Mock Trial Team members display the traveling trophy they won in competition at the University of Cincinnati on Jan. 7. Members of the team are, front row, L to R: Reeti Pal, Omar Khoury and Abby Taylor. Back row: Mark Samaan,Jack Schroder, Cooper Schreibeis, Nick Inglin, Stephen Hutchins and Dale Lakes.
The Summit Upper School Mock Trial Team Silver won the Fourth Annual University of Cincinnati Mock Trial Invitational on Saturday, Jan. 7.
This is the 11th year Summit has participated in Mock Trial competitions. This year, 22 high school teams competed in the competition and Summit Team Silver was the only team to finish the day with a 4-0 record. This year's case revolved around the Fourth Amendment and current search and seizure laws. In this fictional case, based on a current case before the U.S. Supreme Court, police are using cell phone Global Positioning System (GPS) data as evidence in a trial. The prosecution must defend the use of GPS cell phone data obtained by police without a warrant. These actions are currently legal in most states as cell phone user contracts give companies the right to turn over all data to law enforcement without a warrant. The defense must prove that the current law violates the Fourth Amendment and that the people of the U.S. have an expectation of privacy for all data collected by their cell phones.
Mock Trial Teams received their case in late September and worked with attorneys on many weekends and after school to prepare to argue the case against teams from other schools.
Team Silver's prosecution attorneys are freshmen, Abby Taylor and Omar Khoury. They called two witnesses, played by sophomore Nick Inglin and senior Cooper Schreibeis. The team's defense attorneys are senior Stephen Hutchins and junior Jack Schroder. Their witnesses were played by juniors Reeti Pal and Dale Lakes. The team's timekeeper is senior Mark Samaan.Outstanding Attorney in round one went to Omar Khoury and Outstanding Witness to Nick Inglin. Stephen Hutchins won Outstanding Attorney in round two. The team is coached by three local attorneys: Rebecca Wright, Richard Campbell, and 2003 Summit graduate Kelly Leibold. The Summit Mock Trial program is run by Upper School Social Studies Department Chair, Kelly Cronin.
While only one Summit team competed in the U.C. competition, all three of the school’s teams will begin the state competition along with hundreds of other schools at the end of January.
