One of the two East Mock Trial teams advanced to the regional level following its 2-0 record at the Butler County District Competition last Friday. One of five regional qualifiers from the 13 school, multiple-team Butler County site, the East "Hawks" team won on both the plaintiff and defense sides -- defeating squads from Kings and Talawanda -- to ensure one of the two East squads would move on to the regional event in Clermont County on Feb 22. Winners from that site advance to the state tournament in Columbus on March 5.
Individual winners included Best Attorneys Andrew Breland (Hawks) and Faiz Siddique (Thunder) and Best Witness Nikki Kaine (Thunder). The Butler County Court Judges and area magistrates, who cleared their dockets to allow them to judge the all-day event, called Breland and Siddique "professional grade attorneys, who used their witnesses well and certainly grasped the case law and legal procedures involved to try these cases." The judges added that "Miss Kaine was truly believable as a school district technology director. She was in her part, but she did not allow the defense any advantage on cross examination."
Team Hawks Members include: Attorneys, Breland, Ariadne Souroutzidis, Victoria Liang, and Kavya Sreevalsan; witnesses: Haley Braun, Victoria Reick-Mitrisin, Katie McMahon, and Tom Behan; and bailiff Kevin Li.
Team Thunder members include: Attorneys: Luke Hall, Nitya Sreevalsan, Nathan Diddle and Siddique; witnesses: Kaine, Heidi Yang, Amanda Kaine, and Eric Muenchen; bailiff, Shivang Patel.
Contact: Deam Hume, 759-8615 Date: February 8, 2010
