AUGUSTA, Maine — Cape Elizabeth High School won the 2011 Maine State High School Mock Trial championship in a close match against Hampden Academy last week.
The final was held on Dec. 8 in the Maine Supreme Judicial Courtroom at the Cumberland County Courthouse in Portland. Maine Supreme Judicial Court Justice Jon Levy was the presiding judge, with U.S. Attorney Thomas Delahanty and Maine Law School Dean Peter Pitegoff serving as evaluators.
Cape Elizabeth will represent Maine at the National High School Mock Trial Championship in Albuquerque, N.M., on May 3-6, 2012. This represents the second consecutive win for the school.
This year’s mock trial case was a prosecution for the murder of the vice president of Pinnacle Paper Co. The murder took place late at night at the paper company’s plant in a fictitious town in Maine.
The defendant was the leader of an environmental activist group called the Swamp Rats, which has engaged in protest activities and committed trespassing and vandalism at the paper plant in an effort to stop the pollution of the river next to the plant. A trail of evidence collected at the crime scene led to the defendant, and he was charged with murder.
The Maine State Bar Association has sponsored the Maine State High School Mock Trial Competition for 18 years, with additional support provided by the Maine Bar Foundation and Friends of Mock Trial. Many members of the Maine judiciary and bar volunteer their time and expertise each year as judges or evaluators of the competition rounds or as attorney coaches for the teams.
Twenty high school teams and approximately 300-350 students participated in this year’s mock trial competition.
