Mock Trial

Students in Glendale attorney Kathryn Van Houten's Introduction to Law class, offered to youths ages 16 and older by Glendale Unified School District, will conduct a mock trial on May 30 and June 1. The mock trial will begin at 4:30 each afternoon and end at 6 p.m. It will be in the courtroom of Glendale University of Law at 220 N. Glendale Ave. Students have been working since February to learn courtroom decorum and process through their...

Crescenta Valley High School has advanced to the semi-finals of a mock trial competition that began with 84 high schools in Los Angeles County in early November. The 20 students on Crescenta Valley's team have advanced to beat out 80 other schools to reach the final four, and will compete against three other unidentified schools in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom Dec. 3. The case? A car accident in which texting may have been involved. During the mock trials, the students act as prosecutors or defense attorneys.

Crescenta Valley High School came in second place to James Monroe High School during the final round of the Los Angeles County mock trial competition held among 84 high schools. The defeat came after Crescenta Valley High took on the role of the prosecution during a three-hour mock trial Wednesday night at a downtown Los Angeles courthouse. The case: proving who was driving a car that hit a bicyclist. Monroe High is a magnet school in North Hills that specializes in law and government and has garnered media attention before for twice competing in mock trial finals in the past four years.

Adrian Vega and Toni Deluca were driving home on a mid-April night when their car struck bicyclist Cameron Douglas. But the matter of who was driving the car was the topic of debate that took over a Los Angeles courtroom this week. Both Vega and Deluca are high school swimmers, aspiring Olympians and hopeful UCLA athletes, and each insisted they were not behind the wheel. Their testimony, in fact, was given on behalf of a Crescenta Valley student and a Louisville High student pretending to be Vega and Deluca during the semifinals of the Los Angeles County mock trial competition this week.

Beverly Hills Bar Assn. scholarship recipient Windy Watson of Glendale, a student at Loyola Law School, was one of seven scholarship recipients recognized at the association's annual luncheon honoring California's Supreme Court Justices at the Beverly Regent Los Angeles. Watson, a third-year student at Loyola Law School, received a $2,000 scholarship from the association. Among her many accomplishments, she has served as regional director in the National Black Law Students Assn.

PUBLIC SAFETY Police are asking for the public's help in finding the driver of a car that struck a 64-year-old Glendale man on Monday, leaving him dead and injuring his daughter before driving away from the scene. Salvador Soria Ramirez was helping his 33-year-old daughter, Veronica Ramirez, push her car — which had broken down — out of the parking lot of New Horizons Family Center about 8:30 p.m. when a car coming southbound on Glendale Avenue collided with the vehicle they were pushing, Glendale Police said.

Fifth-grade students at La Canada Elementary School learned about the three-strikes law Tuesday in a mock trial featuring real attorneys. The exercise was a way to teach students in the Gifted and Talented Education program about the legal system, elements of a jury trial and the significance of serving as a juror. Attorneys and parents Jim Evans and Gail Cooper-Fold represented two sides of a case surrounding a homeless man facing life in prison for his third felony.

?I?ve made friends, had fun, and now I?m ready to move on with my life.? ? Denise Wright , 22, at her graduation ceremony from the Foothill Area Community Transition Services program, which serves young adults who have disabilities. ? ?It?s not about what you know, it?s about how you express it." ? La Crescenta resident Kenneth Mac Neal , 17, on the legal arguments that won him an award in a countywide mock trial competition. ? ?In a very sad situation before the holidays, I think the only bright side of this is that we can bring closure for the family by bringing him into custody.

As students continue to rigorously study for the SATs and Subject Tests, one student in particular is celebrating her ACT results. Crescenta Valley High School senior Marissa Robertson received a perfect score of 36 on her ACT exam. She was one out of only 11 college bound students to receive the perfect score. ?I first received the report and I was happy, but when I received the letter saying I was one out of 11 students, it made me thrilled,? said Robertson. ACT stands for the American College Testing program, and the first test administered was in 1959.

Darleene Barrientos After getting grilled on the witness stand, 13-year-old Valerie Lopez sat down quietly as the trial continued around her. The experience did not deter the Franklin Elementary School student, who appeared jubilant that she managed to maintain her composure while being questioned. Actually, being part of the mock trial might nudge Valerie toward the profession. "It was fun," Valerie said. "I like fighting for people." Some of the professionals who met Franklin Elementary's sixth-grade class Thursday included a prosecutor from the Los Angeles Superior Court's Norwalk courthouse, a cosmetologist, an animator, a reporter, an architect, an interior designer, a racecar driver and a police officer.