Centennial High School Wins Mock Trials  

Centennial High School claimed victory in a close showdown round to win the 2019 Kern County Mock Trial Super Saturday held on January 19 in Bakersfield’s Kern County Superior Courts of California.

Nineteen high school teams, and one junior high team, argued the fictitious case of People v. Klein. Centennial High will represent Kern County at the California Mock Trial in March.

Rounding out the top 5 teams were:

Second — Garces
Third — Liberty
Fourth — Ridgeview
Fifth — Golden Hawks (Centennial High’s second team)

The top two students from each team who consistently performed the best throughout the course of the two-month competition were named to the Honor Court. They were:

BHS
Fedra Price & Joseph Caputo
Centennial
Bela Meyer & Ian McNairn
Delano
Nayeli Garcia & Kyle Duncan
East
Kiara Salazar & Damon Lentz
Foothill
Monica Ascencio & Lizeth Caballero
Fruitvale Jr. High
Vaishvi Joshi & Garrett Redstone
Garces Memorial
Farah Abumeri & Nick Oh
Golden Hawks*
Emma Eckert & Mallory Phares
Golden Valley
Ignacio Castillo & Greg Jimenez
Highland
Keshav Patel & Ricky Rodriguez
Liberty
Aubrey McDowall &  Michael Blaine
North
Anahi Hernandez & Chelsie Powers
Ridgeview
Briana Camero & Bhjan Preet Kaur
RFK
Jeslaine Montecino & Megan Reyna
Shafter
Lilyana Villa & Joseph Hernandez
SCOTS**
Bella McKinney & Mina Medel
South
Chavasha Julian & Omar Gonzalez
Stockdale
Zara Mubin & Miller McCraw
West
Estrella Ramos & Denzel Secreto
Wonderful
Victoria Gardea & Roberto Osorio

*Centennial’s second team
** Highland’s second team

Competing high schools reversed defense and prosecution roles each round and provided witnesses and courtroom officials in the fictitious case of People v. Klein. People v. Klein is the trial of Reagan Klein, a young adult resident of the fictional town of East Flamingo, California. Reagan is charged with two felony counts: making a false report of an emergency (in this case, commonly referred to as “swatting”) and making a criminal threat. The prosecution alleges that Reagan threatened Reagan’s coworker, Sawyer Smith, via a social media post on the popular picture-sharing app NowPic.

Kern County Mock Trial is funded with a grant from the Harry and Ethel West Foundation and is sponsored by the Kern County Superintendent of Schools, Kern County Bar Association, Kern County Superior Courts of California, Kern County Sheriff’s Department and Sheriff’s Reserves.