Luverne High School’s Mock Trial team earned three wins since the 2016 season began late last month.
The team most recently traveled to Redwood Falls Friday, Jan. 29, earning a win over Minneota, 230-215.
The first round was earlier in January against Lakeview High School with Luverne winning 226 to 222. The LHS team has also earned a win over Hills-Beaver Creek 218-207 in the second round.
The wins come on the heels of a successful 2015 season that found Luverne earning a trip to the state contest — the first time in nine years.
“(This year) we have a great team with understudies in training for next year,” said adviser Deb Schandelmeier.
This year’s team consists of 19 students with several students taking on scoring roles.
The prosecution team includes Susan Thompson, Dylan Thorson and Knute Oldre.
Jadyn Anderson, Hannah Hoogland, Emma Verbrugge and Mira Uithoven portray witnesses for the prosecution.
The defense team consists of Hans Bakken, Knute Oldre and Dylan Thorson.
Defense witnesses are Madi Schandelmeier, Kaitlyn Roberts and Megan Rogers.
“There are gangsters and questionable cops, fingerprints and ransom notes and all that fun stuff,” adviser Schandelmeier said.
This year’s case takes place in 1933 and focuses on the kidnapping of Wilhelmina Hamm (portrayed by Anderson), a successful brewery owner just as prohibition is ending.
Toni Dahill (Hoogland), the chief of police, was bent on cleaning up the city of Saint Paul. Billie Dunn (a role shared by Verbrugge and Uithoven) was a sales manager at the Hamm Brewing Company. She received the ransom notes and delivered the ransom cash. The $100,000 ransom resulted in Hamm’s release unharmed.
The search for the kidnappers first led Dahill to a person named Ryan Touhy (Madi Schandelmeier). Touhy was tried for the kidnapping but later found not guilty by the jury.
When the investigation was reopened, the evidence was more closely examined.
Fingerprints were discovered on the three ransom notes. The prints belonged to Jackie Peifer (Rogers). Peifer, the defendant in the case, was the owner of the Hollyhocks Night Club, a place visited by both esteemed politicians and gangsters alike.
Francis McDougall (Roberts), a fingerprint expert, addressed the questionability of the fingerprints found on the notes.
Mock Trial is a law-related education program that introduces students to the American legal system through simulated courtroom competitions. It is organized through the Minnesota State Bar Association.
The MSBA’s Mock Trial Advisory Committee selects a new case each year based on an actual court case. This year’s case was based on the kidnapping of William Hamm Jr.
“We did add a couple of things,” said MBSA’s Kim Basting.
Added for the Mock Trial competition was the fingerprint expert, she said.
The Minnesota case was the very first in the country in which a fingerprint comparison was used to obtain a criminal conviction.