33rd Annual Riverside County Mock Trial Competition to Feature 520 Students from 30 Riverside County High Schools

More than 520 local high school students are participating in the month-long legal competition known as the 33rd Annual Riverside County Mock Trial, which began on Feb. 10, with the final competition being held on Saturday, March 5. Defending champion Hemet High School will face legal challenges from 29 other high schools from throughout Riverside County in multiple rounds of competition. Mock Trial involves students arguing cases in front of real judges, and is scored by real attorneys. The competition is open to all students in grades 9 through 12 enrolled in public and private high schools in Riverside County. Teams consist of 8-25 students filling the courtroom roles of defense and prosecution attorneys, witnesses, clerk, and more. The winning county team will represent Riverside County at the California Mock Trial competition to be held March 18-20 in Sacramento. In this year’s event, students will argue the fictional case entitled, People v. Hayes, the trial of Jamie Hayes, a student at Central Coast University (CCU) on a track and field scholarship. Hayes faces a felony charge of murder for the homicide on May 15, 2014, of Lee Valdez, a campus security guard. Hayes is raising the affirmative defense of another in order to claim the homicide was justifiable. First round matchups (prosecution vs. defense) on Wednesday, Feb. 10: Desert – Larson Justice Center, 46-200 Oasis Street, Indio Palo Verde Valley vs. Coachella Valley Indio vs. Xavier College Preparatory Palm Desert vs. Palm Valley Southwest – Southwest Justice Center, 30755-D Auld Road, Murrieta Temecula Valley vs. Great Oak Temecula Preparatory vs. Rancho Christian Paloma Valley vs. Chaparral Murrieta Valley vs. Lakeside Riverside – Robert Presley Hall of Justice, 4100 Main Street, Riverside Jurupa Valley vs. Martin Luther King Valley View vs. John W. North Arlington vs. Nuview Bridge Early College Santiago vs. Eleanor Roosevelt Centennial vs. Patriot Citrus Hill vs. Poly Norco vs. Hemet Woodcrest Christian vs. Ramona For a complete listing of the locations and schedules for all rounds of the competition, visit the Mock Trial micro-site at www.rcoe..us/student-events/mock-trial. The Riverside County Mock Trial is sponsored by Riverside County Office of Education (RCOE), Riverside County Bar Association (RCBA), and Riverside Superior Courts, in cooperation with the Constitutional Rights Foundation (CRF). Since 1983, more than 12,500 students have participated in Mock Trial in Riverside County.