Saint Xavier’s Mock Trial team traveled to DuPage County Courthouse for the American Mock Trial Association regional tournament after being selected as 1 of 17 teams to participate over other collegiate mock trial teams throughout the country.
The team used the remaining time of the fall and spring semester to prepare for this honor. Each team was assigned a case before the set tournament date. Saint Xavier’s assigned case was “Felder vs. Koller Campbell Air,” which is circled around aircraft negligence. In the months leading up to the competition, members underwent an intensive preparation process under Matthew Thrun, Mock Trial coordinator and political science teacher, which included the review of all cases materials including affidavits of all possible witnesses, case law, stipulations, and evidence, among other courtroom procedures.
Maryham Zahdan, a sophomore member of the University’s Mock Trial Team, played the role of defense attorney and the witness Aubrey Roy for the plaintiff side.
Zahdan recounts the preparation process stating, “I had to learn possible objections, how to apply them, and how to argue for them or against them if you are on the receiving end of the objection. I then had to work with the defense team on our strategy going in, who we were putting in, and which one of us will be directing, cross examining, giving the opening statement, and the closing statement. From there, I drafted my directs and crosses and practiced them until the day of the competition. I prepared directs for the defense witnesses Aubrey Roy and Shanon Shahid, and crosses for Shannon Shahid and DB Gelfand”.
She also goes on to discuss the most memorable part of the trial stating, “The most memorable part of the tournament would be our first competition against Wheaton’s second team. It started off very chaotic as Wheaton’s plaintiff team picked one of our planned witnesses, so we were down a witness. I then had 30 minutes to draft a direct for the witness DB Gelfand and prep the defense witness- Armando Vazquez- on how to play his part. It ended up pretty well as I already had a cross ready so I just had to slightly edit my questions. I then crossed the plaintiff’s witness Shannon Shahid, which ended up going pretty well and landed me a 10/10 score for the cross, and one of the judges approached me and told me I did really well and had a great presence in the courtroom”.
The competition took three days to complete the same trial four times; two times for attorneys on defense and twice for attorneys of plaintiffs. It mimicked an actual trial, including unplanned incidents in witness testimony which Zahdan experienced first hand.
Although the team did not win the case, they won three of eight ballots and a number of titles. Team members Maryham Zahdan, Emory Duran, Cassandra Hernandez, and Jordan Tims received the title of Outstanding Attorney and Team Captain, Myah Bawadi received the Outstanding Regional Attorney Award.
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