Glenwood, Rifle mock trial teams off to state

Mock trial teams from Glenwood Springs and Rifle high schools will be competing at the state championship tournament in Brighton next weekend.

Glenwood Team 1 and the Rifle Gold team took first and second places, respectively, at the Feb. 11-12 Colorado Bar Association Western Slope Regional Tournament, held at the Grand Junction Justice Center, to earn the trip to the state meet.

Teams from Glenwood Springs have won the state tournament seven times, while this will be Rifle’s first trip to the state tournament in several years.

Glenwood’s Team 2 took third place and its third team was fourth at regionals. Glenwood’s state-bound team is coached by Charlie Willman and Wes Burke, and its student team members are Anton Freeman, Chandler Hagemann, Sophie Hayes, Zoe Lyon, Ellie Moser, Grace Nilsson and Mikey Willis.

Glenwood Team 2, coached by Diana Ray and Zac Parsons, is made up of Harrison Cooley, Kristin Bates, Toby Blizzard, Reed Flentge, Brooke Long and Sierra McKinney; and Team 3, coached by Isabel Carlson, includes Takoda Britton, Brittany Gutierrez, Rebekah Jensen, Linnea Petersen, Megan Quinn, Kate Shanahan, Aaliyah Tapia and Zeva Carruth.

Several Glenwood students earned individual honors at the regional tournament, including Moser and Shanahan, who won awards for best attorney, and Willis, Britton, Flentge, Gutierrez and Moser, who won for best witness.

Rifle’s state-bound team is coached by Garfield County Judge Jon Pototsky. Members include Hannah Bodrogi, Ethan Mackley, Sadie Suarez, Kenia Chavez, Adamarys Nagaya, Alan Munoz and Luis Santana. Winning awards at the regional meet were Suarez and Knudson for best attorney, and Mackley for best witness.

Mock trial challenges teams of students to play the parts of attorney, defendant, plaintiff and witnesses in a mock civil case. Teams are judged based on presentation, questioning and persuasiveness.

This year’s Colorado case involves a mock wrongful death lawsuit in which a grieving parent by the name of Kyle Roberts is suing Productions of THC, Inc. (or POT, Inc.) for making a marijuana edible than contained 30 milligrams of THC in a single piece, rather than the normal adult dosage of 10 mg.

Roberts claims he unknowingly consumed one piece of the marijuana-infused “Wacky Taffy” candy and lapsed into a stupor while his 5-year-old daughter found the candy, ate three pieces and jumped to her death from a fourth-floor balcony.

Roberts claims that the packaging did not properly designate three individual doses, and that the edible looked exactly like the candy Laffy Taffy. The same case will be argued as part of the state competition.