COLUMBUS — The atmosphere in the Franklin County Municipal Courtroom on Thursday afternoon was tense.
It wasn’t because it was filled with roughly 40 family members, friends, coaches and classmates.
It was the fierce competition Danville Mock Trial team faced in the Ohio Center for Law-Related Education’s Mock Trial State Finals.
It was by far the hardest trial of the regular season, Danville mock trial witness Ryan Lucas said. It was definitely the longest, lagging at nearly three hours.
Teams from around Ohio competed in the three-day single elimination tournament. Trials on March 9 and 10 took place at the Franklin County Courthouse; the final round will be March 11 at the Supreme Court of Ohio.
Danville left it all on the line and gave it everything the Blue Devils team members had on Thursday, but ended up missing the threshold to move on to the next round of state competition by one place.
The top eight moved on to the state semifinals. Danville finished ninth.
Still, Coach Noel Alden remains amazed by his squad.
“This is a six-month slog of an awful lot of work,” Alden said. “They had some real highs winning some tournaments and this reminds us even when you lose, you don’t understand how hard it is to win and how fun it is to win.”
Before the battle began, teammates gathered in the hallway, where it was cool and windows showcased an overview of downtown Columbus below.
This wasn’t the team’s first round at state. They knew the building well and what it took to get to this moment.
But for seniors Minda Bates, Nora Holbrook and Ryan Lucas, this was their last time at state — their last time going through the case, making arguments and objections.
Led by veteran coach Alden, the team walked into the compact courtroom, put their backpacks, briefcases and folders crammed with notes on the table as the room slowly rose in temperature.
On this day the Danville team was the prosecution.
Acting attorneys Bates and Olivia Keffer checked the audio levels in the room to see how loudly they needed to speak; same with acting witnesses Lucas and Zander Patrick.
The opposing team, Akron Hoban, gathered on the opposite side.
After minutes of strategizing, the room fell silent. Acting judge Steven Dauterman introduced himself and began the trial.
This year’s case is a suppression hearing for a high school student accused of tampering with eggs at an annual alumni breakfast. The eggs were filled with explosive candy.
At the end of the trial, Bates gazed down at her legal pad, took a deep breath and walked to the center of the courtroom, artificial lighting shining down. It was time to give her closing argument.
“Miranda warnings were not necessary because one, this was a disciplinary school issue and two because Stevie Khan was not subject to custodial interrogation,” Bates said.
“This was not a criminal matter but rather a school disciplinary issue,” she continued. “This was not a police investigation. This was not an arrest. This was not even a custodial interrogation. This was a conversation with a student regarding a school issue.”
Bates went on to say Khan admitted on the witness stand that he was not placed in handcuffs, placed in a police cruiser, taken off school property or told that he was under arrest.
“Let’s look at the circumstances,” Bates said. “The conversation that occurred took place in a school setting, which the Ohio Fourth District Court of Appeals … held to be non-coercive.
“And yet your honors, Stevie Khan felt nervous in this school setting. But simply because a clinically anxious teen began to feel antsy and even claustrophobic does not mean that a reasonable minor without these perspective-altering conditions would feel that they were being restrained to the level of a formal police arrest.”
Instead, Bates said, Khan’s incriminating testimony occurred when he was talking to Blair, a classmate, not a government official, not a police officer but a fellow school student.
After the trial ended, Bates was awarded outstanding attorney, bringing a smile to her face.
The team gathered their belongings and headed to the elevator. They had another trial to prepare for.
