By Heather Monahan
Copy Editor
The St. Bonaventure Mock Trial team proved they could take challenges by the horns as they placed third in the Running of the Bulls Tournament hosted by The University at Buffalo.
Two members of the team, freshman political science major James Cook, and junior political science major Alex Noguerola, received individual awards for their performances at the invitational.
Cook received the Outstanding Witness Award for his role as bartender Billy Isaacs who was a witness for both defense and prosecution.
“Basically it was just for my performance as a witness, how I was able to answer questions and if I was fluent with my answers,” Cook said. “Was I able to hold my own with opposing council when they were asking me questions was pretty much my role.”
Noguerola was honored with the Outstanding Attorney Award.
“I am a defense attorney so I do various roles with directing one of our witnesses, particularly the defendant,” Noguerola said. “I cross the prosecution’s expert, who’s a detective most times, and then I close for the defense.”
Noguerola said with the amount of talent showcased at the tournament, he’s honored to have been recognized with the award.
“There are a lot of great attorneys here, a lot of people I’ve become friends with throughout competing, and to be able to be among the top of them is a great recognition of the hard work we all put into it,” he said. “To be able to be ranked among my own teammates is something that’s hard, but it’s also a great pleasure for me to produce such high-quality work at the same time.”
While Noguerola can be considered a mock trial veteran with his three years of experience, Cook is just in his second semester with the team.
“I took the class because I’m in the (law and society) minor. So once you take the class, then you can continue with the club if you want to,” Cook said. “I chose to do so, and I love every minute of it.”
Though he’s just a freshman, Cook said he has no problem slipping into his character roles for tournaments.
“I took a lot of acting classes when I was in high school and middle school. I was in all the plays, so for me it just comes naturally,” he said. “It’s just memorizing your affidavit, memorizing the questions that are going to be asked ahead of time. Then it’s kind of improvisation on the spot. When an opposing counsel is asking you questions that you’ve never run into before, you’ve got to know your background and who you are.”
Although channeling the character is easy enough for him, Cook said it can be difficult to go from a defense witness in one trial to a prosecution witness in another.
“You’re vouching for one side and then another in between trials and that can be a little confusing,” he said.
Noguerola, on the other hand, has a different tactic for success.
“I tend to go in there each time (with a) blank slate and really work from what I hear in the trial,” he said. “I sit down, and I get together with the people I’m sitting with on the bench, and we just discuss, ‘Alright, they’re calling these people so this is what we’re going to do,’ and we go at it. Outside of that, I just try to focus on what’s going on in the trial and nothing else.”
While Cook and Noguerola claim to have their own mechanisms to prepare for trial, both testified to the team effort that goes into each tournament.
“We work together as a team, and on the bench it’s what you are doing to help out your other attorneys,” Noguerola said. “So my primary goal is just making sure we present the best case and just getting into it. That is, as soon as you sit down and as soon as the judge walks in, you’re ready to go.”
This year, the SBU Mock Trial team has the goal of claiming one of 48 spots in the American Mock Trial Association (AMTA) national tournament in March. Both Cook and Noguerola acknowledged the benefits that come with meeting twice weekly and said the tournaments help immensely as well.
“We see what works and doesn’t work in our own case. What happens when you just practice as a team is you just get stuck into this vacuum,” Noguerola said. “(For example) when you sit there and work on a class project and you get so wrapped up in something that someone else looks at you and says ‘I don’t really understand what this means.’”
Noguerola said in addition to examining their own case at tournaments, they get to pick up on what other teams are doing.
“We saw a team use an exhibit very effectively this past weekend, so we got one of our own, and we’ve been starting to incorporate that into our own stuff,” he said. “So that’s what we do. We sit there, we take the ideas we hear and we incorporate them into our case. Or we sit there and find ways to refine our own. It’s a trial and error kind of thing.”
