Lakewood High School Mock Trial 2021

This spring the Lakewood High School Mock Trial team competed in the District competition sponsored by the Ohio Center for Law Related Education (OCLRE). The trial case for this year was State of Buckeye v. Micah Opessa. The issue was whether or not Opessa could withdraw a guilty plea in the case from a year earlier due to misconduct on the part of the prosecution.

All in all the students worked hard for over three months, on their own, to prepare for this competition. They overcame a number of challenges to perform and thoroughly impressed the judges in both competitions.

For the first trial, the Defense team was led by Attorneys Cameron Wereb (co-captain, 9th) and Jana Evans (9th), with Emily Jarecke (9th) playing the role as the defendant Micah Opessa, and Leah Campbell (co-captain, 9th) playing the role as defense witness Corey Abrams. The second trial was conducted by Attorneys Grace Lamparyk (10th) and Meredith Wheeler (10th) for the Prosecution, with witnesses Alexandra Hodson (10th) as Prosecutor Justice Okafor and Mimi Nee (9th) as Detective River Foley. The bailiff and timekeeper for the 2021 LHS team was Sofia Rivera-Bitner (10th), who juggled both roles successfully for both trials.

This year the team was led by first year faculty advisor Mr. Joe Lobozzo, who worked tirelessly to assemble the team and coordinate with OCLRE. The Lakewood team had a very strong showing in both of their trials, scoring well against each school. Amelia Leonard, one of the attorney advisors, said "the students did an amazing job, not only by forming their own team, but by conducting a completely different type of trial. Like their counterparts in the justice system, the mock trial program was completely online, with the judges, students, and advisors all working virtually. Our Lakewood students really stepped up to compete in this new environment."

Dan Shields, another legal advisor, added "this was so different than any other year. Not only was the competition virtual, but we had a very young team, as all of our 2020 team members had graduated. We are very excited for the future of the LHS Mock Trial, as we will have a young but experienced team for next season."

Mock Trial is open to all high school students, and we welcome 8th graders who will be freshman at LHS this fall. Mock Trial begins in October.