NYM students participate on local mock trial team

By Tucker Henderson

Reporter

For the past 6-7 years, there has been something missing from the New York Mills School’s extracurricular offerings. This year, Jason Boe along with volunteer coaches Angela and Nick Sonsalla, Emma Barthels and Jackson Veazie has resurrected the program.

The mock trial team in NY Mills was going strong up until about seven years ago when Tim Fresonke was still teaching in the district. He, along with help from Amy Mursu of Lakeview Trust & Estate Law, built a successful program that ultimately went on hiatus after Fresonke left NY Mills.

“When he left, the program just kind of stopped,” said NY Mills teacher Jason Boe. “I had known about it, but I had been coaching other stuff. We had some interest from some students (this year).”

With 13 students on the team and others welcome to join, the mock trial team has a fair amount of enthusiasm for the first year back after a long break. Alongside Boe, there are four other coaches that make the team what it is today. Boe said he couldn’t express enough how much the volunteer coaches mean to the team and how much work they have put in to help students succeed.

“I’ve been very fortunate with some volunteer coaches. In mock trial, you need an attorney to help you out,” he said. “Angela Sonsalla, who is an attorney here in town, has lended her time and commitment to the program and also her husband, Nick, who is former law enforcement. Both of their backgrounds have helped out immensely.

“I also have two other coaches, I have Jackson Veazie and Emma Barthels, both formers students of mine and both former Mock Trial students,” he continued. “They’re helping as well and all four of the coaches have been amazing. They’re so good.”

Boe said that he is new to the mock trial experience, but is encouraged by the amount of interest and enthusiasm shown by the students. He has high praise of Tim Fresonke and Amy Mursu’s work in the past with creating a successful mock trial program and is hoping to do the same now that it is started up again.

Mock trial is sponsored by the Minnesota State Bar Association and this year, each team in the state was given a fictitious case State of Minnesota v. Smiley Inc., which follows the story of Smiley Inc., which has been accused of dumping illegal toxins into the river. Throughout the season, teams must build their knowledge of the case, as well as the legal precedent in order to successfully defend or prosecute competing teams in each round.

“It’s a criminal case of a company being accused of dumping illegal toxins into a river,” said Boe. “Every trial, we have to have three lawyers and then three witnesses that we have to bring to trial and then we have to be ready to direct examine them and then cross-examine the other sides.

“We know ahead of time if we’re prosecution or defense,” continued Boe. “We were the prosecution in Fergus Falls and Battle Lake was the defense and we went to the Otter Tail County Courthouse in Fergus. So we’re actually in a court house with judges, the judges were attorneys and they would judge us on our performance. It felt pretty real yesterday, being in a court room, then you had an audience in there too—family members could come watch and sit quietly in the back.”

During practice throughout the week, students research the case, learn what their ability as a lawyer extends to and what they are not allowed to do, witnesses must memorize their parts and also those of other witnesses. An understanding of the law in question pertaining to the case is also important as lawyers need to cite the legal precedent.

“It’s a little bit of everything,” said Boe. “There’s maybe some changes to the case that we have to be aware of. It’s a lot of prep. We don’t always get all 13 (students) every night, we try to work around their schedules. If they’re involved in other things, we encourage that, we actually want them to do that.”

Boe commented that the team has been to one invitational and one round so far. In round one at Fergus Falls they were beat, but Boe explained that they did very well for their first round.

“We thought we did pretty well and we’re not too worried about wins and losses, just trying to get our feet wet this year and figure out what we’re doing and hopefully be better by the end,” he said. “I’ve been an athletic coach, but this was just as competitive and intense as any athletic event. We did get beat in terms of points, but we felt pretty good walking out of there.”

Another part of mock trial that Boe appreciates is the camaraderie between the teams after each round. He was happily impressed by each team as Battle Lake and NY Mills students joined together in shaking hands and congratulating each other on their wins and high points.

“I saw that in St. Cloud too, that gave me goosebumps actually,” said Boe. “Them shaking hands and you can compete, but also say nice job, well done.”

For NY Mills, the season started in November and they got the statewide court case in October. The season will run until mid to late-February. Some competitors will then make their way to state competition.

“One meet at a time for us,” smiled Boe. “We started in November. In hindsight, we wish we would have started a little earlier, even though we didn’t have the case, we could have started learning about what it means to be a lawyer and our objections.”

Boe said that he has seen the mock trial students really blossom in the short time they’ve been together as a team.

“I see kids working together who wouldn’t normally be working together,” he said. “We have 7-12th, so it’s pretty neat to see some seniors become mentors to some of these junior high kids. Just becoming more confident and seeing themselves do something they didn’t think they’d be able to. I’ve had kids that didn’t want to be a lawyer, but after being successful as a witness, they say ‘I really want to be a lawyer now.’ That’s pretty cool to see.”

Boe said that they are always accepting students who want to join the team. An important part of the team is learning to be comfortable speaking in front of people and then working as a team.

“Teamwork is a big thing,” said Boe, talking about both the students and the coaches. “Working with the other adults is really fun. They all bring their own expertise and I’m learning so much, not just from the coaches but from the kids too. Seeing the kids improve, they’re literally improving every day. Seeing their confidence—seeing somebody who was a little bit shy and nervous open up, that’s fun to see.”

Boe expressed multiple times that the volunteer coaches should receive all the credit for the success of the program as well as the work of the past  mock trial teams and their coaches.

“I just set up the buses and check out my room,” said Boe. “I can’t tell you enough how important the volunteer coaches are. The amount of work they’re putting in and the time—it’s amazing. Without our volunteer coaches, there would be no mock trial.”