November 10, 2009
St. John’s Hosts 2009 Peter James
Johnson-National Civil Rights Trial Competition and NITA Tournament
of Champions
St. John’s University School of Law took on the challenge of
hosting two national mock trial competitions back-to-back during
the last two weeks of October, 2009. First, the annual
Peter James Johnson-National Civil Rights Trial Competition
(named in honor of Peter James Johnson ’49, a St. John’s graduate
who has dedicated his legal career to excellence in the practice of
law) pitted 18 law school mock trial teams from around the country
trying the case of Gardiner v. Greenwood City. This
year's case file was a class action civil rights case asserting the
unequal treatment of persons arrested at political demonstrations
for low-level offenses. Specifically, plaintiffs claimed that the
Greenwood City Police Department refused to issue Desk Appearance
Tickets (Summonses) to protesters arrested for low-level offenses
and instead processed them "on-line," forcing the
demonstrator-arrestees to spend a night in custody before seeing a
judge.
> View NCRC Photo Gallery
After a welcome lunch at the Nassau County Bar Association
including a “toast to Domus” by Vice Dean Emeritus Andrew Simons
and an inspiring video depicting the life of Peter James Johnson,
the teams took to the courtrooms in the Nassau County Supreme
Court. The team from the University of Virginia, Travis
McGivern, Rachel Mossman and Matt Davie won the championship round
in the School of Law’s state-of-the-art Belson Moot Court Room and
took home the traveling trophy. Other teams included Southern ,
Temple, William & Mary, Florida, Illinois, Southwestern,
Connecticut, Buffalo, George Washington, Houston, Brooklyn,
Fordham, Pace, Florida Coastal, Mississippi College of Law and St.
John’s.
The following week the School of Law hosted the 2009 NITA Tournament of Champions
at the Brooklyn Federal Courthouse. The top 16 mock trial programs
in the country sent teams to compete in this prestigious
competition. Each team tried four preliminary rounds of the case,
People v. Cordova, a criminal case of assault and
imprisonment charges against a faith healer. On Saturday
afternoon, the four semi-final teams (University of Maryland, St.
John's, South Texas, and Chicago-Kent) battled for a spot in the
championship round held the next day in the School of Law’s Belson
Moot Court Room. The two top teams, South Texas and St. John’s,
were announced at the Gala dinner Saturday night attended by Lonny
Rose, President and CEO of NITA. On Sunday, St. John’s
and South Texas faced each other in the championship round. After
four days of exciting trials, St. John’s claimed the traveling
trophy for the “best of the best” mock trial team in the country.
St. John’s student Michael Maffei won the Best Advocate Award.
>
View NITA Photo Gallery
> View full list of teams from NITA Tournament of
Champions
The School of Law is indebted to those whose hard work and
dedication made these events a success, including: from the
Center for Professional Skills, Assistant Dean for Professional
Skills and Professor Keri K. Gould, Professor Victoria
Brown-Douglas and Coordinator Sheila Johnson-Adkins; from the
Polestino Trial Advocacy Institute, the student organization
dedicated to the training of superior trial attorneys, Kristin
Merani, (Executive Director), Jenna Mastroddi (Director of Special
Events), and Martha Lapsatis (Asst. Director of Special Events);
from the Special Events Department of St. John’s School of
Law, Karyn DiDominici and Jen Manfredi. The School of Law is
particularly grateful for the generosity of Judge Anthony Marano,
Chief Judge, Nassau Supreme Court, Jeff Goodstein, Principal Law
Clerk Judge Marano, Administrative Judge of Nassau County and the
Honorable Raymond Dearie, Chief Judge of the Eastern District of
New York, for making their courthouses and courthouse staff
available throughout the competitions.