Fresno State hosted the weekend-long Harvey Wallace Northern California American Mock Trial Association (AMTA) Mock Trial Regional in which 22 teams competed for a chance to advance to the Opening Round Championship (ORC) Nationals.

The tournament was named in memory of Harvey Wallace, who co-founded the mock trial program at Fresno State 10 years ago. The regional took place in the Kremen Education Building where Fresno State’s teams A and D debated the case Park v. Duran — a fictional case written by the AMTA — against competitors such as UCLA, UC Davis, Sonoma State, Cal Poly Pomona, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and UC Berkeley.

Fresno State’s team A had a final score of 4-4, with D finishing 3-5. ­Team A won its ballot with the USC “B” team, however, split other ballots with UCLA B and UN Reno. ­Team D won three ballots against San Luis Obispo A, however, after facing UCLA B lost two. Although it was UCLA that finished on top with a score of 8-0, and a combined score of 21, Fresno State teams B and C will compete in Claremont McKenna, Los Angeles, at this weekend’s regional.

“This means that there is a slim chance we might still qualify a team from our regional for an ORC somewhere in the country depending on the number and scores of waiting teams across the country,” said Gordon Park, Fresno State mock trial coach and regional tournament director.

Park v. Duran will continue to be the case used until the national competition in April. At nationals, teams will only have three weeks to familiarize themselves with a new case and materials, a much shorter time compared with the preparation for regionals.

The nature of the case involved the fatal shooting of 11-year-old Sydney Park by her best friend Jesse Duran. ­Plaintiff teams were given the options of claiming it was negligent parental supervision or intentional shooting by Duran.

Since August, teams have studied all details created for this mock trial: the model of the gun and forensic tests; witness and expert testimonies; and the results of Duran’s psychopathy test.

Using demonstratives — either provided by AMTA or student generated — were presented to strengthen arguments.

“I find it really interesting I find it really heart-breaking, too. ­I mean we have a lot of cases like that in real life,” said Samantha Sharkoff, a USC mock trial competitor.

Cases like Park v. Duran give students a real courtroom experience, complete with real-life judges and lawyers volunteering as jurors and scorekeepers.

Judge Susan Gill of Kern County Superior Court, Judge Gary Green of Fresno Superior Court and attorney Kevin Hansen of the firm McCormick Barstow were among the 60 volunteers, attorneys and judges who evaluated students’ arguments and performances.

“We think it’s a good case, because it changes from trial to trial,” said Justin Bernstein, AMTA president. ­”It’s not only challenging intellectually, but how to present the case from an emotional perspective to a jury. There are some really charged difficult issues.”

One such issue was how to properly criticize and cross-examine minors who might take the witness stand. In both questioning and being questioned, students even if they were not studying law, received the experience law firms are looking for that could one day determine employment.