Washington Adventist University Mock Trial Team Scores Major Victories in National Competition

The Washington Adventist University Mock Trial team competed at the national American Mock Trial competition at American University in Washington, D.C. Over the course of three days — from February 13-16 –t he team competed in four trials, each one lasting 3 hours. The team had tremendous success, obtaining its first post-pandemic victories in the competition. 

The team’s first victory came Saturday night against Temple University, a major public university in Philadelphia, that has more than 30,000 students. The two-judge panel had a split verdict in the case, but WAU was declared the winner by virtue of the fact that the overall point differential favored WAU.

On Sunday, the team had two trials, one against Howard University (DC), a perennial powerhouse, and newcomers from Elizabethtown College (PA).  The team secured its second victory of the weekend against the Elizabethtown, and came within three points of victory on each of the two ballots against Howard.

‘This year was a real step forward for the team,’ said Dr. Nicholas Miller, Professor of Law and Religion at WAU and the Mock Trial Director. ‘The win against Temple was a real confidence boost, then a close loss to Howard and a finishing win against Elizabethtown is really something to be proud of.’

Last year, Howard beat WAU by double digits last year, and this year they were one of the six (out of 24) teams that advanced to the next round.  Had WAU managed to prevail against Howard, then WAU would have advanced to the next stage. 

‘Is was certainly gratifying to see our hard word pay off,’ said Shea Standish, a senior Political Studies major and captain of the Mock Trial team. ‘I can’t tell you how many hours go into preparing for this one weekend.’

Standish was instrumental in organizing WAU’s participation in an Invitational Tournament at Catholic University and ‘scrimmages’ against Johns Hopkins University and Villanova University.

This year’s case was civil case that centered around the death of Midlands millionaire Avery Bancroft, who died suddenly while aboard the Mid-Riverina Express. Bancroft had two children, Taylor Hopson and Shannon Shahid. According to Bancroft’s will, Hopson – who was aboard the MRE when Bancroft died – would inherit most of Bancroft’s estate. Shannon Shahid brought forward a case alleging that Taylor caused Bancroft’s death and therefore should not inherit any of the Bancroft estate.

In Mock Trial cases, teams must take on the role of both prosecution and defense throughout the weekend. On Friday afternoon in WAU’s first competition, a coin was flipped to determine if they would start as the prosecution or the defense. The trial began 30 minutes after the coin-flip.

Congratulations are in order for the entire team, especially for team Captain Shea Standish, who is in her third campaign, 2nd year veteran attorney Kyle DeCastro, and impressive rookie Bethany Krause, who is just a Freshman. All three of this year’s attorneys are in the WAU Honors College. 

The team orchestrated their case with a group of very impressive witnesses, including Gabriel Cook (’28), Alanah Alphonse (’27), Francisca Kimbembe (’25), Madyson James (’28), Yocelin Morales (’28), and erstwhile time keeper Kimarry Wright (’27).  Kudos also to attorney and WAU and University of Maryland School of Law graduate Sonny Moretta, who has coached the team along with Professor Miller.

The team is grateful for the support and prayers of many parents and friends of our team, as well as Honors College director Brad Haas and Jonathan Scriven. The team is also appreciative of the accommodations that the American Mock Trial Association and their opponents, including Temple and Howard, made for their Sabbath keeping.  Team leaders are looking for students, supporters, and sponsors who can help the team build on its successes, and achieve even greater things next year.