On January 27th, Pacific Grove High School won the Ninth Annual Monterey County Mock Trial Competition.  Monterey High school came in second place with Palma High taking third place.  Anjelica Colliard of Carmel High School was the winner of the Courtroom Artist contest with second place going to Maria Alonso of Alisal High School and third place captured by Dustin Hunt, also from Carmel High School.  Anjelica is invited to represent Monterey County as our Courtroom Artist at the State Finals.

Pacific Grove has sponsored a Mock Trial team since 1998.  They will represent Monterey County at the California State Competition in Oakland, California from March 23rd – 25th, 2007.  This is their fourth trip to the State Finals.  Tom Wortham, teacher coach, and attorney coaches Elaine McCleaf and Diana Rosenthal of the Monterey County District Attorney’s Offices will be joining the students at the State Competition.  This year’s Pacific Grove team members are as follows:  Joel Pearman, Lisa Rose Battaglia, Michael O’Dell, Ashley Bargenquast, Zachary DeLap, Ashley Shaffer, Melissa Karasek, Charles Hall, Dorothy Ann Winslow, Molly Speacht, Alec Spears, Chris Hardee, Andrew Cardoso, and Morrighan Hart.

Special Awards went to the following students:

Outstanding Pretrial Motion Attorneys:
Defense – Jaciel Pacheco/Alisal High and Coleman Smith/Palma
Prosecution – Armando Cortez/Alisal High and Stephanie Funt/Carmel High

Outstanding Attorneys:
Defense - Noah Freedman/Carmel High and Parker Adams/Palma
Prosecution – Stephen Alexander/Palma and Whitney Griffith/Carmel

Outstanding Witnesses:
Defense – Jamila Cambridge/Seaside High and Jessica Vetterli/Seaside High
Prosecution – Casey Uy/Alisal High and Brian Norton/Monterey High

Outstanding Bailiffs:
Aaron Lewis/Palma
Ashley Bargenquast/Pacific Grove High

Outstanding Clerks:
Ben Perlmutter/Carmel High
Ana Ochoa/Alisal High