The Cheyenne East High School team scored the most ballots and points to win the 2014 Wyoming High School Mock Trial competition, while two teams from Casper Star Lane Center finished second and third.

Five high school teams participated in the competition was held in the District Courtrooms in the Laramie County Government Complex on Nov. 22: Cheyenne East, Casper Kelly Walsh and three teams from Casper Star Lane. Each team ran the plaintiff’s and defense sides as they competed one-on-one against other teams in the civil trial of Kelly Anderson, who sued Carter County High School and track coach Dale Rockford. Anderson was the parent of a track star who died of a steroid-related heart attack.

East High School students will represent Wyoming at the National High School Mock Trial competition in May 2015 in Raleigh, N.C.

Presiding judges at the 2014 Wyoming mock trial competition were Supreme Court Justices Michael Davis and Kate Fox and District Judges Thomas Campbell, Steve Sharpe and Catherine Rogers. Trials were scored by attorneys from Laramie, Albany and Teton counties. Also, Circuit Judge Tom Lee was a scoring judge this year.

A case is prepared each year by Wyoming High School Mock Trial, which releases the case Sept. 1 and makes arrangements for competition about 10 weeks later, on the Saturday before Thanksgiving at the Laramie County Courthouse in Cheyenne. Teams of 6-8 students portray the roles of attorneys and witnesses, based on the case materials and on the rules of evidence and competition from National High School Mock Trial. Teams are coached by teachers, parents, attorneys and other volunteers from the community.

WHSMT is supported by grants from the Wyoming State Bar Association and relies on volunteer attorneys and judges to write cases, preside and score at the annual competition. The WHSMT coordinator is Marguerite Herman, a member of the Laramie County School District 1 Board of Trustees. The co-coordinators in 2014 were Cheyenne attorneys George Powers and Traci Lacock.

 

 

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