La Reina High Wins Mock Trial Contest

For the third time in five years, La Reina High School in Thousand Oaks has won the county’s high school mock trial competition.

The team from the relatively small Catholic school outlasted squads from second-place Thousand Oaks High, third-place Santa Paula High and fourth-place Newbury Park High during Thursday’s final two rounds of the competition, which began Monday.

This year’s case dealt with issues of child abduction, grand theft and self-incrimination.

“I love it when little La Reina with a student body of 360 beats the much larger high schools in the county,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Donald C. Glynn, who coached the team along with Mark Scarberry, Pepperdine University law professor.

Glynn said 14 of the La Reina team members were in their first competition. Attorneys on the team were Tami Beitzel, Jo Dransfeldt, Mary Grehian, Sarah Choi, Stephanie Wolfsohn, Natalie Shum, Leila Yavari and Jahan Shirazi.

Witnesses were Kelly Lanquist, Kellie Maestri, Mary Lewinski, Leena Shankar, Amelia Premji, Deena Antonacci, Kelly Byrd, Shannon Creen, Corie Rogovin and Linda Nebin.

Bailiffs for La Reina were Arati Jairam and Sonia Grehian. Librarian Eileen Debruno served as teacher coach.

La Reina also won the competition in 1990 and 1991, Glynn said. The mock trial is sponsored by schools Supt. Charles Weis and the superintendent of schools’ office.