On January 30 and 31, 2024, Middletown North faced their rivals at the Monmouth Superior Court in Freehold, New Jersey. The team is advised by a business and law teacher at Middletown North who helped tremendously in preparing the team for their victory.
On January 30, 2024, North’s defense team consisting of lawyers Molly Bartram and Rebecca Jiang alongside their witnesses Nina Virani, Nolan Alba and Colin Jaques faced South’s prosecution team. The night started off with a strong opening statement from Jiang leaving the jury and the judge stunned. Following opening statements, witnesses Nina Virani, Nolan Alba, and Colin Jaques went up to the stand for direct and cross questioning. They all did an excellent job digging deep and really stepping into character. South’s lawyers were no match for their winning attitude. Bartram and Jiang continued to do an amazing job asking the right questions and proving the defense’s innocence. Bartram then proceeded with her closing statement, sealing the deal and which gave North’s Mock Trial Team their first win of the competition.
When asking North’s prosecuting attorney and senior at MHSN, Logan Corvisiero, about the win, he said, “South’s victory plan had gone… south.” Colin Jaques, who is also a senior at North and was a witness on the defense side, said, “They thought they were cooking, yet I was the chef.”
On January 31, 2024, Midd North’s prosecution team consisting of lawyers Luke Beys and Logan Corvisiero, alongside witnesses Rashi Mhapsekar, Edward Wright, and Sofia Beys, faced the CBA defense team.
The team started strong with an opening statement from Logan Corvisiero. Following the opening statements, witnesses Rashi Mhapsekar, Sofia Beys and Edward Wright went up to the stand for direct and cross questioning. Once again, they did a great job fighting back on the cross and proving their innocence. Corvisiero and Beys directed each witness and ultimately proved that the CBA defense was the only thing guilty in that courtroom. Luke Beys then proceeded with his closing statement, securing North’s second win of the competition.
Members of the team were asked about the CBA win. After viewing Corvisiero and Beys’ great arguments, prosecution witness Colin Jaques stated, “It was like a wildfire as Luke and Logan torched CBA’s defense.” After his performance, Corvisiero was asked to give a quote regarding his team’s win. He said, “I don’t argue to win, I argue for the truth. I’m not just a genius, I have a low taper fade.”
When asked about the Mock Trial Competition as a whole, team members talked about how successful this year was. Senior and defense witness, Nolan Alba, said, “Don’t drink and drive; but if you do, call the Middletown North Mock Trial Team.” sophomore and prosecution witness, Rashi Mhapsekar said, “This year was fun. Not only did we make it past the first round which hasn’t happened in a while, but we also had fun doing it. If it hadn’t been for this club, I would have never met some of these people and I am truly so grateful that this team became a family.”
With that said, the Middletown North Mock Trial Team did an amazing job this year. The amount of hard work, lunch blocks and after school meetings that went into this operation reflected that. Each and every one of these individuals rose to the challenge and absolutely crushed it. Every lawyer was professional, knew their objections, knew what they had to get out of every witness on the stand and, most importantly, found the truth. Each and every witness knew their character, how to defend themselves, how to fight back and what to do to prove their innocence. The team did suffer a loss in the next round against Wall. Junior Rebecca Jiang, prosecution lawyer and one of Wall’s opponents, said, “Even though we lost in the end, I won by meeting the best people along the way.”
