WAU Competes in American Mock Trial Association Regional Finals

Pre-Law students from Washington Adventist University participated in the American Mock Trial Association (AMTA) Regional Finals Tournament on February 16-18 at American University in Washington, DC. The DC Regional is one of 32 regional tournaments held across the country. Over the course of three days, the team competed in four full trials — representing both prosecution and defense — in the case of State of Midlands v. De la Porta and Cameron. 

This year’s case involved an annual charity gala for Sohi Children’s Hospital in which four masked individuals break into the vault at Miller Tower. During the heist, one of the armed robbers and Emory Sands, a Miller Tower security officer, are severely wounded. Two of the robbers flee via a helicopter on the rooftop and two flee into the streets of Santa Ivo City. After an extensive investigation on the local and federal level, Poe Cameron is arrested as one of the four suspected armed robbers, and local billionaire Berkley De la Porta is arrested for funding the criminal operation. Adding to the complexity of the case, Poe Cameron claims that he acted under duress and makes this a central part of his legal defense.

WAU began the weekend with a trial against local neighbor Howard University, a highly rated university located in Washington just 6 miles from WAU. The second trial was against Swarthmore College and the weekend concluded with two trials on Sunday, one against Scranton University and one against Virginia Tech. 

To prepare for this tournament, students were coached by two well-qualified individuals, both of whom are alumni: Sonny Moretta, judicial law clerk of the Circuit Court of Baltimore City, and Attorney Renée Battle-Brooks, who serves as Executive Director of the Prince George’s County Human Relations Commission. Attorney Stephen Brennwald, who has several years of experience as a coach for the team in the past, served as a judge for the team tryouts. Nicholas Miller, Professor of Law and Religion here at WAU, coordinated the entire effort and taught a Fall semester class called The American Judicial System which is required for anyone who participates in Mock Trial. Mock Trial is based in the Center for Law and Public Policy which is housed in the WAU Honors College.

WAU invited local high school students who are particularly interested in studying law to attend some of the trials. If you or someone you know is interested in studying law or public policy, please contact Dr. Jonathan Scriven at jscriven@wau.edu.