Wayland Mock Trial members Andrea Tempesta and Bridget Smith rehearse under the guidance of attorney-coach Howie Lenow. (Credit: Shensi Ding/WSPN)

Last Wednesday, on February 3rd, the Wayland Mock Trial team went to Waltham City District Court for their second preliminary trial. Wayland won by 2 points, at 105 to 103, against Gann Academy’s Mock Trial team. This comes after Wayland’s first win against the Dana Hall Mock Trial team, 91 to 84.

The Wayland Mock Trial team lost almost half of its members upon the graduation of the class of 2009. It was a very tough transition for the team, which had to schedule extra practices in order to be prepared for the trials.

“We’ve come a long way from the beginning of the season,” said new member Tim Caradonna after the team’s first win against Dana Hall. Added captain Sabrina Yurkofsky, “I’m very proud.”

Additionally, this year’s state-wide Mock Trial case is very detail-heavy and complicated. The plaintiff is a character called Doris J. Zellus who invested in a hedge fund and lost money. The plaintiff is sueing the defendants on the basis that Zellus’ financial adviser misled her into investing. The defendants are fictional Abigail J. Clifford, Ms. Zellus’ financial advisor, and the investment company Goldsmith, Neray & Sass.

Upon receiving the case, the Wayland Mock Trial team – which traditionally consists of 18 people – divided up the roles so that each person received one examination to take part in. Half of the team performs as the defense, and half of the team performs as the plaintiff.

The lawyers who performed as lawyers for the defense against Dana Hall were Sabrina Yurkofsky, Melanie Wang, Matt Gutschenritter, Meg Dejong, Tim Caradonna, and John Huo. Melanie Perten, Bridget Smith and Gabriel Sehringer acted as the defense witnesses. Melanie Wang performed the opening and Sabrina Yurkofsky carried out the closing

“I’m relieved that my side of the team has already competed,” said a smiling Yurkofsky after the trial, “because that, combined with midterms, really increased the stress level in my life.”

The lawyers who performed as plaintiff lawyers last Wednesday were Neeti Singhal, Andrea Tempesta, Shensi Ding, Willem Wang, Julian Catanese, and Swathi Sivasubramanian. Dina Berdichevsky, Iliana Smalanskas, and Larry Guo performed as witnesses for the plaintiff. Andrea Tempesta opened the trial and Neeti Singhal performed the closing statement.

After the judge announced the final score, the whole team sighed a breath of relief, as it was clearly a very close trial. These two wins mean that the Wayland Mock Trial team stands a chance at getting to the district semi-finals and possibly moving onto the state competition.

The plaintiff is still anxiously getting ready for their next trial. On Thursay, February 11th, the plaintiff will be facing off against the Belmont Hill Mock Trial team’s defense.

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