BHS Mock Trial Team Keeps Defendant Out of Jail

Parker (Parka) Plunkett is a free man. He had a great team of lawyers to defend him.

The Barrington High School “mock trial team” was ruled successful in their defense of Plunkett last Thursday afternoon, Feb. 17, in Courtroom 4M in the Garrahy Judicial Complex in Providence. Workers Compensation Court Judge Edward Sowa Jr. announced the ruling by two attorneys sitting in as the jury.

The prosecution team was from Coventry High School, which had been successful in both of their previous courtroom appearances. Barrington lost to St. Mary Academy Bay View and won over Lincoln School in their previous cases.

Both teams will move on into the playoffs, which begin in a few weeks, said Linda Quattrucci, executive director of the Rhode Island Legal/Educational Partnership. RILEP, a nonprofit agency, has been running the Mock Trial Tournament since 1984.

“The trial was everything I hoped it was going to be,” Sowa said before he announced the ruling. “The trial was, perhaps, the most enjoyable of this season. The adrenalin was flowing. Both of you believed in your case.”

“It was really a battle,” Sowa added. “Both sides did a tremendous job of responding to what you saw.”

Barrington just did a little bit better, he said.

Pooja Arumugam, Erin Fingleton and Amy Entin were the attorneys for this case. Witnesses for Barrington included Sam Fingleton, Catherine Menke and Sara Margulies. Dawn St. Angelo was the rules expert.

Barrington attorney Elizabeth Cuzzone is the mock trial team’s adviser and judge during practice. She has to stay far away from the team during a trial, though. The students must carry the load. 

Cuzzone said the team met several times a week to prepare their defense for Plunkett, a locomotive engineer whose train collided with a car, killing one of the occupants. He was charged primarily because he was texting while driving even though the vehicle drove across the tracks to try to escape a police officer.

The Barrington students were successful because they convinced the jury that the vehicle drove into the oncoming train, and Plunkett did whatever he could to prevent the collision.

Perhaps surprisingly, none of the Barrington mock trial team members handling this case plan to pursue a career in law, they said Tuesday at the final practice before the trial.

See the photos and video clips of the students in action.