Aspiring Journalists Learn Courtroom Procedure
Student journalists competed in the second annual Mock Trial Student News Reporter Contest in conjunction with the Judge Lyle Strom High School Mock Trial Program last Monday.
Students from each of qualifying schools at the mock trial state competition were invited to bring a court reporter with them as part of their team, documenting the first round of the competition.
Professional journalists judged the competition. They selected Damon Bennett, a student at Northwest High School in Grand Island, as the winner.
The goal of the contest is to give students interested in journalism or communications more broadly an opportunity to learn about courtroom procedure and the trial process. Each student was given two hours to write a story based off the first round of the mock trial competition, summarizing the key facts while maintaining accuracy and objectivity.
Organizing the reporting competition were the Nebraska State Bar Foundation’s Bench Media Committee and the Nebraska Broadcasters Association.
The contest’s judges were Scott Stewart, local news editor of The Daily Record; Jacque Harms, news director and midday anchor of KNOP-TV in North Platte; and Dave Schroeder, news writer at KRVN-AM in Lexington. Lancaster County District Court Judge Kevin McManaman, NET television and radio senior producer Bill Kelly and Channel 10/11 executive producer Brett Baker also mentored the students on writing.
The Daily Record is proud to share Bennett’s winning story –which is based on a fictional case – with our readers:
Soccer Star Sues Food Giant
By Damon Bennett
Today in the district court of Wagon Wheel County, the case of Kelly Panenka vs. Rabona Foods was heard in front of a jury. The complaint by Panenka is that Rabona Foods breached a contract that existed between the two parties causing damages of $100,000.
Rabona Foods claims that Kelly Panenka’s actions involving a protest at an All-Star game held in Goldenrod in June 2018 did not conform to her promises in the contract, so the company decided to terminate it.
August Storm, an environmental activist, testified that Panenka had taken part in a protest a year prior to the All-Star game Storm planned. The protest took place at Porkenheimer’s Pig Farm and included vandalism. Storm also said that Panenka was never a part of planning either protest, and took no part in the protest at the All-Star game.
When asked about her part, Panenka told jurors how she had felt pressured into taking part in the Porkenheimer’s protest and had no part in the All-Star game protest. She claimed that none of her actions ever caused any harm to Rabona’s name.
Rowen Rubisco, the marketing director at Rabona at the time, said on the stand that in an interview with the plaintiff, she never described the Porkenheimer’s incident. However she had done a social media background check on Panenka, and thought she would be a good spokesperson for the company.
Rabona claims that the protest at the All-Star game brought disrepute to their company. Storm backed this up when claiming this was her most successful protest yet. However, R.J. Midfield, a poller commissioned by the FDA in 2017, testified that the results of her poll proved that GMO’s, the issue Storm protested, did not cause disrepute for companies such as Rabona.
No representatives of Rabona Foods witnessed the protest at the All Star game, but reporter Bobbie Woodstein with the Daily Cynic was assigned to the game and saw what happened. She testified that when the protest started, Kelly Panenka was taken off the stage quickly, and members of the crowd began chanting along with the protest and throwing their cans of BreakFast, Rabona’s new product, at the stage.
Frankie Flakke, president and CEO of Rabona Foods, took the stand in defense of her company, and testified that this and Woodstein’s published interview with Panenka had damaged Rabona’s public image. During her testimony, Flakke also discussed how she had fired Rowen Rubsico and in-house counsel because of their irresponsibility in hiring Panenka.
Panenka’s lawyers are also trying to prove that Rabona Foods actually breached the contract before the events of the All-Star game, pointing out a section of the contract that required Rabona to provide travel arrangements to events such as this and recalling how Panenka had to ride to the game with August Storm.
During closing statements, claimed that the wording of the contract signed gave Rabona justification for terminating the contract over the events of the All-Star game. Panenka’s lawyers compared what happened to the Salem Witch Trials, with Panenka being punished for something she did not do.
After hearing closing statements, jurors left to decide if damages should be awarded to Kelly Panenka for $100,000, the value of the contract, or if Rabona Foods rightfully ended the contract with her. The jury is still out.
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