CMSD NEWS BUREAU

5/20/2019

Cleveland Early College High School topped a field of eight teams to win this year's Mock Trial competition.

Each year, student teams take the roles of defense attorneys and prosecutors and argue cases before judges in Cleveland Municipal Court. Students also act as witnesses and bailiffs, and participants write essays on their cases. No verdicts are rendered, but the judges and other scorers award points for presentations in court and the essays.

The cases are usually fictional, but this year the docket included one based on the real-life case of Fred "Ahmed" Evans, who was found guilty of seven counts of murder in a shootout that precipitated the Glenville riots in 1968. Evans died in prison in 1978.

The Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association partners with the District on the competition, and association members coach the teams in the weeks leading up to Mock Trial.

Other schools that participated were Cleveland School of Science and Medicine, Facing History New Tech, Ginn Academy, New Tech Collinwood, Martin Luther King Jr., MC2STEM and Whitney M. Young Leadership Academy.

New Tech Collinwood finished second in the team competition and New Tech West came in third. 

Individual winners included Naushay Whitson, New Tech West, outstanding prosecutor; Tabares Scott, New Tech Collinwood, outstanding defense attorney; Sabrina Brooks, New Tech Collinwood, outstanding witness; and Courtney White, Cleveland School of Science and Medicine, outstanding writer. Nate Titschinger of Facing History New Tech earned honorable mention for writing.

The four individual winners receive paid internships with the court.