Mock Trial Winners Lauded on Law Day

COURT HOUSE – Middle Township High School’s 2013 Mock Trial team was honored May 3, Law Day, by Judge Julio L. Mendez, assignment judge, Atlantic-Cape Vicinage, on winning the county mock trial title.
Observing the celebration in Courtroom C were seventh and eighth graders from Cape Trinity Catholic Grade School, as well as some parents, teachers and members of the county Bar Association who oversaw this year’s series of trials earlier in the year.
Mendez asked seniors on the team to stand, and then spoke briefly with them about their career plans. The three, who had spent three years on the school’s mock trial team, were Alex Casper, Ryan Hildebrandt and Ashley Smutnik.
Sen. Jeff Van Drew and Assemblyman Robert Andrzejczak (both D-1st), addressed the team and presented a resolution to teacher coaches Martina Trapani and Joseph Towns.
Trapani reminded the team, as well as the younger visitors, that participation in the mock trials was a valuable tool in learning to speak well in public as well as preparing them for other challenges.
Towns, a Lower Cape May Regional graduate, credited participation in the mock trial team at his school as helping prepare him to be a teacher. He said it aided him in deciding to become a teacher.
Mock trial team members were: Alex Caster, Ryan Hildebrandt, Ashley Smutnik, Victoria Shappell, Gabrielle Giuliano, Lauren Anderson, Dylan Rhile, Morgan Goranson, Dominique McNeil, Casey Salvadore, Brandon Brady and Jake Wade.
Cape May County Bar Association Vice President Jeff Lindsay opened the program and welcomed the team and visitors.
Joining the ceremony were Judges Christopher Gibson and John Rauh, Cape May County Prosecutor Robert Taylor, Sheriff Gary Schaffer and Undersheriff Robert Nolan, James Moore, local mock trial program coordinator, and Michele Devine-Hartnett, executive director of the Barr Association.
Following the presentation, a reception was given the team in the Jury Management Room. Throughout the hallway and into the lower lobby of the courthouse, displays were assembled to denote what various agencies do as part of the Law Day Fair.