Stockdale undefeated in Mock Trial

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Defendant Moury Bidgoli (left) and her defense attorneys, Kseniya Astakhova and Brent Bonetti listened intently as their Stockdale High team battled Liberty High in the Kern County Mock Trial finals.

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Liberty High's Alan Tubbs stayed focused, preparing his pre-trial motion despite the spectator buzz going on around him, prior to the event starting.

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Stockdale High's Kern County Mock Trial championship team now sets its sites on the state title, March 28-30 in Riverside, CA

Stockdale High School culminated an undefeated Mock Trial season by emerging as the best among 17 county high school teams who competed in the 2007-08 Kern County Mock Trial Super Saturday championship final in Bakersfield's Kern County Superior Courts of California on Jan. 26. Stockdale went through four preliminary rounds of competition, covering three months, without a loss, finishing with wins over Centennial and then Liberty High in the final to win the championship.

Winning the Mock Trial title is not new. Stockdale went into this year's competition having won the past 11 years. Leading the way for Stockdale were Kseniya Astakhova and Katie Denari, who were both named to the county's Honor Court.

Astakhova is an attorney for the school's defense and prosecution teams, but began by playing the role of defendant in her freshman year. She was a witness her sophomore year. The past two years she has been in the chair to both defend and prosecute the defendant. After it was all over on Jan. 26, the judge in the final case commended Astakhova for having the tenacity of a bulldog as she relentlessly applied pressure to impeach witness testimony.

"I never worry about that — it's my job to help the team win its case," Astakhova said. "In my role I have to be confident and assertive. Actually, the training even carries over to academics, where I use the analytical skills I have learned in Mock Trial to help me scan the underlying meaning in textbooks for classes such as government." 

 Stockdale will represent the county at the California Mock Trial, March 28-30, in Riverside, CA. Finishing second was Liberty High and the third place team was Desert High from Edwards Air Force Base in eastern Kern County. Other teams finishing in the top 10 were:

Fourth - Garces High
Fifth - Foothill High
Sixth - Centennial High
Seventh - East High
Eighth - Highland High
Ninth - West High
Tenth - Bakersfield High

The top two students from each team who consistently performed the best throughout the course of the three-month competition were named to the Honor Court. They are:

Bakersfield High - Andrew Green and Hilary Glossbrenner
Centennial High - Meaghan Lingo and Jacob Loeffler
Delano High - Tiffany Collins and Denise Tobar
Desert High - Jess Smith and Richard Martinez
East High - Ricardo Ramirez and Mary Landucci
Foothill High - Erick Bautista and Hillary Belo
Frontier High - Steven Porfiri and Krystle Cartier
Garces Memorial High - Katy Malloy and Ky Woodard
Golden Valley High - Chloe Duke and Richard Diaz
Highland High - Sophia Hussain and Andrew Worthing
Liberty High - Andrew Tubbs and Alan Tubbs
Mojave High - Stephanie Winn and Ana Garcia
North High - Nicklaus Saffle and Zachary Dowda
Ridgeview High - Mona Gupta and Yesmin Tanguma
Shafter High - Lauren Ogle and Elias Picazo
Stockdale High - Kseniya Astakhova and Katie Denari
West High - Michelle Hernandez and Timothy Ambrose

Team members from competing high schools acted as defense and prosecution and provided witnesses and courtroom officials in the fictitious case of People v. Palmer, which deals with an alleged revenge murder of a famous television producer and admissibility of Memory-Mapping as scientific evidence in the trial. The case was prepared by the Constitutional Rights Foundation and used in each round.
In the annual competition, students have the opportunity to address serious and timely issues young people face today. Under the guidance of teachers and coaches, students use critical thinking and interpersonal skills to prepare and argue the case. An objective of Mock Trial is to give students a better understanding of the link between the Constitution, the courts and the legal system.

Mock Trial brings out some very academically-talented people. One reason Liberty High gave Stockdale a tough battle in the final was because of the prosecutorial work of student James Creech. Creech has plenty of delightful dilemmas to deal with before this his senior year ends. How about these scholastic choices? Harvard University has accepted him for pre-law. Edinburgh University in Scotland has offered him a chance to study there. But, Creech says if the University of Southern California Film School comes through, that is where he will be headed in September.

"But, I love the law," Creech said. "I was really interested in it as a freshman and then when I showed up to take part on the Mock Trial team, I was really lucky. All of these really established, knowledgeable attorneys took me under their wings and showed me the ropes. I really love competing in Mock Trial now - going over the facts and studying hard so I can help the team do well. It's exciting the adrenalin rush you get addressing the judge, presenting your case, cross examining witnesses. It's a blast."

Kern County Mock Trial is sponsored by the Kern County Superintendent of Schools, Kern High School District, Kern County Bar Association, Kern County Superior Courts of California, Kern County Sheriff's Department and Sheriff's Reserves with a grant from the Harry and Ethel West Foundation.

Stockdale High School - 2008 Kern County Mock Trial Team

Stockdale High School

Teacher Coach: Roni Cline, Attorney Coaches: Felicia Nagel, Chad Louie, Kristine Winzel

Jackie Albert
Kseniya Astakhova
Ellen Bartling
Moury Bidgoli
Brant Bonetti
Katie Denari
Amol Gupta

Kat Heinrichs
Deepa Kannappan
Nitasha Khular
Justin Koh
Jonathan Oh
Conor O’Sullivan
Virek Nair

Amie Patel
Danielle Pereyra
Harman Rahal
Sona Shah
Rebecca Struzyna
Lynn Tasker

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