Logos Mock Trial Team Practices for Nationals

Moscow Pullman Daily News, Friday, May 8, 2015
By Shanon Quinn, Daily News staff

A Moscow jury decided late Thursday that Detail Security Incorporated was responsible for damages incurred after one of its employees allegedly used a Taser on a young woman he perceived as a threat.

Both sides were represented by the Logos School Mock Trial Team – Idaho’s mock trial state champions.

The team debated the real case of Andy Archer v. Detail Security nearly a year after the encounter left 19-year-old Archer – a college student on a full track scholarship – with a complex compound fracture to her femur when she was immobilized while racing up a flight of stone steps in the North Carolina state capitol.

“What these young people have done represents a whole lot of work,” their coach, Chris Schlect, said. “We were in Boise in March where we wound up … arguing in front of 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Randy Smith, who was presiding judge – which was one step away from the Supreme Court. And we prevailed.”

The team, which consists of Logos School students Summer Stokes, Preston Evans, Sofia Minudri, Lizzie Schlect, Jameson Evans, Danny Bradley, Luke Mason and Sonya Isenberg, will compete for the national title Thursday through May 16 in Raleigh, N.C.

In order to make their practice run as true to life as possible, the team had the assistance of numerous Moscow residents, including as jurors Lt. Tim Besst with the Latah County Sheriff’s Department, Grace Burnett of New Saint Andrews College, Pastor Douglas Busby of the Evangelical Free Church of the Palouse, News Director Evan Ellis of KQQQ Radio, Moscow City Councilman Wayne Krauss and Mayor Bill Lambert.

Presiding over the case was Judge John C. Judge.

In dark suits and with a professional bearing, the students argued their case for more than two hours before the jury deliberated – and avoided breaking into laughter even when the rest of the very full courtroom did.

At the end of the session, Judge – although he had laughed along with the rest at the students’ need to continually switch characters – commended the team for their hard work, professionalism and knowledge of the case they only had access to for four weeks.

“I don’t see law students performing as well as you have,” Judge said. “You are champions.”