All smiles after the round with (top row, left to right) teacher coach Ms. Laframboise, Pretrial Attorney Ian Hsu (’18), Defendant Brigitte Doan (’18), (bottom, left to right) defense attorneys Kaitlyn Truong (’18), Ally Lenguyen (’17), and Divya Seth (’17).by John Le and Elise Tran, staff writers
On Dec. 7, Fountain Valley mock trial ended their season with a loss to Orange County’s number one team, Saddleback Christian Academy. The team ended in the top eight out of 46 teams this year.
Saddleback Christian Academy has been known for its prestigious mock trial program. Their team has gone to state level numerous times in the past and stood as county champions three years in a row, allowing them to compete in the state competition from 2012-2015.
Pretrial Attorney Ian Hsu (‘18) opened up the trial, arguing for an incriminating statement to be excluded from the trial. He handled extremely tough questions from the judge, which was an amazing feat.
The defense trial attorneys, Divya Seth (‘17), Kaitlyn Truong (‘18), and Ally Lenguyen (‘17), then took the stand. Through their strong directs, all the attorneys made their witnesses more credible to believe.
Saddleback had extremely tough crosses for the witnesses, but each witness pulled through and managed to avoid any troubles with credibility. Defendant (Cameron Awbrey) Brigitte Doan (‘18), Seth Caraballo (‘18), and Alex Nguyen (‘17) managed to give an answer that wouldn’t hurt them. On their crosses, important objections were made such as the troubling “unfair extrapolation” and even an improper impeachment from FV.
The verdict was not guilty for the defendant at the conclusion of the trial, showing that the FV Mock Trial team managed to persuade the judge in their favor.
“You saw Cameron’s passion, her hope and her desire for her dream to be made into a reality, to put all that she had and all that she was into something she loved, only to have it crushed and all fall apart,” said Lenguyen. “Now Cameron is on trial for a crime she came nowhere near to committing, under accusations that don’t even fit.”
After a two-hour trial, an MVP award was given unlike round five. Attorney Seth received this award because of her standout directs with her witnesses.
Although Fountain Valley did not win against Saddleback, this season has been proven successful.
Lenguyen commented, “Overall, this season was simply amazing. It was memorable, wild, insane, fun, stressful, and absolutely amazing. Since this is my last year on mock trial, I really wanted it to be memorable, and everyone on this team made that possible.”
If you are interested in joining mock trial, look out for an announcement in the spring or talk to Ms. LaFramboise for more information to become a part of this amazing program.
