Menlo Mock Trial Takes Trophy at California State Championship

by ANDREA LI

Menlo’s varsity mock trial team won the California High School Mock Trial Championship on March 19 in Los Angeles after being crowned mock trial champions of San Mateo County on Feb. 16. This year marks the 13th year in a row where MMT has won San Mateo County Finals, but is the third time in 20 years that Menlo has won the state finals.

Junior Salma Siddiqui credits much of the team’s success to the seniors. “I’m so incredibly happy we won states. I think we owe most of it to the seniors on our team this year. They absolutely killed it, and I think this is the best mock trial team Menlo has seen in quite a while,” Siddiqui said.

State finals were held in the Stanley Mosk Courthouse — the same courthouse that housed the infamous O.J. Simpson murder trial. This year’s case simulated a trial for battery and robbery, with an additional pretrial motion, which Siddiqui argued. “The motion this year concerns the Fourth Amendment and whether or not a police officer violated a defendant’s rights by searching his room on a cruise ship,” Siddiqui said.

Before the finals, MMT focused on preparing both starters and substitutes.

“For states specifically, [...] a lot of people get doubled out, meaning that they were starting on the team during counties, but they’re not starting for states,” senior and MMT attorney Sydney Fish said.

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