Ep7: Don’t Mess with Texas

was my class speaker. We had run out of time. We were supposed to go to a lunch. We never made it to the lunch. My kids hadn't eaton and now we have to go to the convention Center for the university wide graduation. So we walked down to the Convention Center in Baltimore, and we walked to a Burger King that was between the law school and there. And

remember my mother. I could hear my mother at the counter or trying to order, and this woman at the counter, I could hear her say, hey, bitch, if you can't speak English, get out of my fucking line. The most important day of my life is my mother witnessing me graduated from law school and on that day I still had to hear that that and events like that really

drive me and you don't forget them. And I think that's why I'm driven to come to a school like this, which is a school that has a lot of kids who are like me. We're back with our St. Mary's University team in San Antonio, Andy Viscarra, Jasmine Olegaene Mariella and Sinas and Cold Dobbula. They are the first to admit they beat themselves in their last competition. But today is a new day. YEAHI This is Ajlunam, the Assistant Dean of Advocacy at St. Mary's University School of Law.

So right now we're at the pre day or we want our team to be together for bonding and focus. It's where we come together, where you have a drink, where you have a nice meal, and you you get an opportunity to bond. I'm feeling really good today. Every I feel like we got out our nerves during Battle of Experts. We really saw we need to improve on and I think we're gonna do God willing pretty good. Mary's. Honestly, I can't really add to that, we're gonna We're gonna

do good. We all know what we're doing. I gotta do it well. You never even get nervous. Nervous show it. I know how to keep that look at him. I can do that. I got anxiety. I learned that. I learned how to that a long time ago. This is class action and I'm Katie Fang. This is episode seven. Don't mess with Texas. So let me set this up. The best in Texas competition is going to be all Texas schools. There's ten law schools in the great state

of Texas, Texas. A and M, Texas Tech and St. Mary's are putting it together so that all the schools in Texas can't compete. And so what we did is we said we want this group of four people who had this great experience at a well run tournament but a bad outcome. The difference though, is that we're gonna have Mariella instead of just playing a witness, she earned the right to pick up an advocate spot. So she's going to be the closer on the plaintiff side of

the case. And that's a lot of responsibility. We're giving it too. Well, in her first competition, but we want to give her that. We think she's earned it something else in my life. I am freaking out a little bit, just a little bit, but I'll be fine. Wait, why I am one because it's my first competition where I'm actually competing as an advocate Brianna. Plus it's seven different memes of how stress she was last night. Everyone still on top of it. We bounced back from boeing, We're

going well. They kept us together, thankfully. Um, so we all know how each other works. This is a civil case. So Cole and I are the defense and Mariella and Jasmine are the plaintase. The case is pretty short and sweet, like very very short, like my witness and the person that I'm crossing, Like it's two pages double space of their statement. So it's like, okay, it's really just how you're going to argue the stuff. There's not a whole lot of facts. They're just working with what you got,

your honor. We do not intend to go into damages during today's trial. We will not going to go into any emotional or monetary damn. It is we are burden today is to prove that Mr Williams suffered a permanent injury, that being quadriplegia, ex quadriplegia. What are you saying? Quadriplegia? But that's like not a real air. You need to remind me that. Okay, say again, quadriplegia, quadriplegia, quadriplegia. Why did you tell me this four weeks ago? Because I

thought you knew. I thought even that's just the way you said it, quadriplegia, quadriplegia, quadriplegia. Okay, Mr Williams suffers from quadriplegia. Are expert today will explain what Williams is a quadriplegic. You don't pronounce that. I know. Our expert witness today will explain what quadriplegia is and how Mr Williams said is what quadriplegia is, and how Mr Williams suffering suffers from it. My name is Andy Viscara. You catch my mom on a dacious made me shall command

and I'm a three. I'll here at St. Mary's and yeah I'm trial team captain. Law school is like a very competitive place full of very competitive people individually. So take the pandemic out of it, and you're already dealing with like how do you get people to put the team over themselves in their own personal ambitions? How do you get them to see that the team is more important than that, and like if they thrive, I thrive, and if I thrive, they thrive. We are practicing. We

need to get through cold opening your posing counsel. Ladies and gentlemen, the jury, please accord our circumstances determine our conditions. The decisions that we make at any given moment can change our lives for better or for worse. When things go bad for us, we try and look back at what happened, try and justify our actions, try and justify our decisions. But the fact is hindsize and that is

what's happening in today's case. Chris Williams, the plaintiff. It's looking back at what happened, trying to explain things, trying to explain away his own actions that led to his injuries. Right, what you're doing is really really good. I want you to go back to what you said, and that's what's happening today's case. To go back to that part. Okay, you said, next, that's what's happening sday's case softer. Okay, try it. That's what's happening today's case. Paul's a little

bit softer. Chris Williams, He's trying to re tell the story of what actually strong. At this point in the season, the team has spent more time with each other than with their own families. They've developed a kind of sibling dynamic. Andy's the big, bossy sister, Jasmine the moody middle child, Mariella is the smart little sister, and Cole, well, he's

the serious brother. I tend to be much more straightforward, kind of head through the wall kind of thing, rather than being creative about it, whereas Andy would be much more creative, much more artistic. And so I've learned how to, i guess, get in touch more of my personality and not hiding in as much. Same thing with Jasmine. Jasmine kind of I think a middle ground between me and

Andy in terms of how outgoing we are. Just hanging around them has taught me how to show myself a bit more um whenever I've always been much more reserved and private. I'm starting to notice that I'm picking up some of Andy's mannerisms just in life, but just hanging out with her from so much, but I'm really thankful for that opportunity just because I feel like it did help me in the courtroom. I definitely know I've come

a long way. I felt a lot more comfortable in front of that witness stand doing my cross examination specifically than I did in the summer. Yeah, Tuesday, we had a practice and Andy was like, y'all need to be off paper for your directs and like we actually could do it. I was like, okay, like cool, like we

can do this, like it's not not crazy. I think the biggest thing that I've learned from both Cool and Jasmine one was like I think I thought I knew how to lead before I even became captain, and then you do, and then you're given this new team with these people that you've never worked with before, and you're like, how do I do it? Do I do it? Like this? Do I am? I? Heart? Am? I mean? But you know, like how do I get the outcome that I want? How do I be effective and pull us all together?

And this is my desk. I just kind of a mess right now. You caught me in a moment, So I mean a lot of post it notes, every kind of post it note that you can imagine I have it, lots of different type of pens, lots of highlighters. Oh, we've got a little fake little gavel. This is the firm that I've interned at this summer. It's the Rosenblat Law Firm here in San Antonio. And this is where everyone's hiding. I have the podcast mind where everyone this is Carrie in a Leanna and carry but not spilled

the same way. And Melissa right while we have you all. How is Andy Doon? She's amazing personally, they're like under dressed, They're like, what do we say? From what I hear? Work wise, she's given amazing job, but then personality wise we would tiger every day. For sure. She's already done a deposition that she handled, prepared for and did the question and she does quite a bit of a lot of the discovery work and near you search for the litigation team. So she's done a good job. It's we're

in the worm. This is one of my favorite rooms. So on the wall, we've got all different kinds of maps of Texas and the US. What used to do Mexico so Texas slash the northern part of Mexico. I love telling people fun facts about Texas because a lot of people don't know it. So yeah, Texas has been under six different flags. First it was under Spanish, French, Mexican, let's see confederacy, it's republic, and then the US. I think I'm a lot more calm here, which is weird.

The weight is not that the way at school isn't real, but here it's like, these are real people, real cases, real money on the line, um, real people with real stories and real problems. Andy started for US right March March this year. Jennifer Belden Rosenblatt is a partner at the firm and Andy's supervising attorney. I want a job for her job on the spot. It is very rare to find somebody with the composure to be able to think ahead to the next question and to be able

to catch your breath when somebody's attacking you. Andy has that ability. I came out of law school and went directly to being a prosecutor. There is something about prosecution that is different than any other field. We call it getting your courtroom legs. So I asked her, what's your plan? And I want her to go work for the d a's office because i want her to have that experience.

But I'm only going to let her go if she swears she's coming back, and otherwise I'm going to make sure she doesn't get a job at any DA's office in the in the surrounding two d square miles, and I'll just apologize to her mom. So I just have to move back in with you. You should love that. In Sanaton, you com Today is the Mexican Independence Day. We celebrate um September fifteen. At night, you say, we say we call it a grito because at Sena Club we shout, we scream out phrase va machico and up,

which I will. I'm not saying you the one that's gonna do it later on tonight after the mariatilis. I think it's important to celebrate your heritage and your roots kind of where you come from, you know, and never forgetting like the sacrifices that my parents specifically made to get us here to the United States to live a better life, you know. And even though we're proud of Americans, at the same time, we're also our heritage. We're proud of it as well, you know. And I think that's

what's very important about abady. You're almost like this, m hm. That is the technical, correct way of doing it. Are you ready for the incorrect, non technical way to do it? Are you guys ready to handle that to say, yes, what's your birthday? I didn't like getting food stamps. I didn't like getting government food. I didn't like being laughed at by others. I mean we were poor. I got a full time job working sixty hours a week. At me I'm on a restaurant for one dollar an hour.

When I was twelve years old, all that entire sixty dollars went to my house doing it wrong, silly, right, silly. In order to do it wrong, you have to be able to do it right. But well, you don't want is you don't want to be called out by a judge. As you progress, as you start practicing in front of judges, judges are going to know that you know how to do it. So what are they gonna do. They're gonna give you a little bit more leeway each time because

we want to get to the good stuff. Okay, so I want to You had asked me about my connection here. If we really take our time and teach people properly, then those people like me and my family the way that I grew up, we'd have better representation because there would be people out there that will be able to do it. So when I came here to this school to visit it, when they were looking for the avocacy director, and I took a look around and I saw what was here, it reminded me of home. It reminded me

of my childhood. Okay, I think I'm sharing screen now? Is that right ahead? And not? Or two would be great? It is great, Thank you. Inside his office at St. Mary's, coach A J. Balita de Luna is doing double duty. He's keeping an eye on his team and running the tournament. Right before the round starts, a J briefs the judges, this is important the competition season, it's had some issues and we need to mention this. And I hate mentioning it,

but we need to. And those are your subconscious biases against the competitors for race, gender, ethnicity, religion, age, None of that should play a role in any of the the arguments or in you're scoring. And be cognizant of what you are communicating and how you are communicating with students. So three weeks ago, we're at a tournament and a judge said, I want to talk to the black girl. Now, that's highly highly inappropriate to bring out her race and to call a woman a girl, not by her name.

All of you have your name. All of our advocates are going to have their name. If you want to give comments to an advocate, call them by their name. You might want to say, or their role. I want to talk to the opener or the closer, but anything like that is highly inappropriate. And then we had another judge who said, the glasses that you're wearing make your eyes look so pretty. That's also inappropriate. The only comments that should be made to any of these advocates should

be on their advocacy. That's it. Nothing else. Now, I will say, as leaders in our field, you might see something racism is not that it's alive and well, these are issues that these UM young ladies and others are going to have to deal with for their entire lives until UM racism dies in this country. The best of Texas ground one. If I can have all of the judges and competitors please turn to cameras on so we can just do a great conflict check and witnesses to

judges and competitors. Does anyone looks familiar to be That's a many either. Thank you, so I believe you can be gad. This is a civil trial. Chris Williams was a star athlete who went to a rock concert, was thrown to the ground by security staff, and is now paralyzed from the neck down, Your honor posing counsel, Lady and gentlemen, the jury made police accord I. Our circumstances

determine our conditions. The decisions we make at any given moment in our lives forever altered the course of our life, for better or for worse. When things go wrong for us, we try and look back through rose colored lenses to try and justify what happened, to try and explain away the reasonings and things that led to our current condition. We try and blame others for our wrongs, for our own negligence. That is what is going on today. That is what the plaintiffs are trying to do. Chris Williams,

the plaintiff. Later in the round, Andy grills the plaintiff, getting her to admit that she knew her actions had consequences, all right, Siliam so you knew that getting into that mosh pit coul jeopardize your lacross carew but you did it anyway, and you didn't stop there. The second song to more Cowbell came on, and something came over you. And when that's something, when that song came over you,

you decided to jump on the group of strangers nearby. Yes, now you don't know if you hurt these people as you jumped on them. We originally thought it was a plaintiffs case. And then Cole and I really hit the defense pretty hard. The plaintiffide is having a little bit more trouble than we thought they would. Hello, So look, I mean, all on, go around for us. You can fix that love thing. Yeah, if you want to win. Yeah right, it's a little thing, but it means these

are tribal weird, right. They want us to be that sharpness right, yeah, so let's get that sharpness thing there. You're right, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, but it's that's okay, right, we can up make this. So we're at Free that Free That Mexican restaurant and bars the full name. This is my parents restaurant that we are all super proud of. We opened during COVID because it was either open and lose money or stay closed and lose money. I'm still a server here when I'm not in school and not

fully employed. That they might laugh, but they will agree with me. I think I was the perfect kid, not perfect like you know kids mess up and stuff, but I was. I was a golden child. I never stepped out of line, and if I stepped like half a to out of line, it was like right back in. Um, I wasn't really a rule breaker. I wasn't. I don't know if it's like a child of immigrants thing. There's a million questions about identity that I'm hyper aware of that I go through my head all the time. Do

I have my two white? Um? Should I be more Mexican? And it's like, wait, no, I am Mexican, Like I don't have to be more anything. Senior year of college, I was kind of having an identity crisis of like going back to Texas. I don't know why I got into my head that I needed to look more Mexican. So I dyed my hair dark brown, similar to like my mom's hair color, and I hated it. It was, you know, I chopped it off and I tried to

wear more greens and color. I don't know if you have if you get a chance to see my mom, Like she's this brown woman with like black wavy hair, and you know, she's got all these bracelets and she's always dressed in colorful things from head to do. So I was just like, maybe I'm not embracing who I am. Maybe like I need to do it. And it just felt wrong and it was like, oh my god, am I you know, do I hate my culture? It's like no, no, no, no, stop.

It's an overthinking game. Always yes yes and sandro yes cock. Okay, this is us, Oh, there's my down comes us. Listen. This is the blue room. That when is the rosroom? Okay, and the capacity is like three hundred and fifty people, it's ten thousand square feet. Yeah. This is the front of the kitchen line the line. Yeah. But we have the prep team and the money, so the rest of the team they come up for a clock. The thing with Mexico as depends where you go. Every estate they

got a particular food. But if you go to the state, the little town, they got it even something especial. You're like, you never find anywhere house. So we have this uncle who he like not my blood, but he's from like the Pacific coast. He's from us Atlanta, And I mean I've been ever in Mexico. Mexico's the most phenomenal in the world a number, but I have never eaten aguachils like is that he makes because like it's like he's

from the coast. He's from there. He's from this little town and his grandma taught it to make him a certain way. And it's like it's crazy this traffic cake tonight. Oh yeah, Well, I feel like I got my goal. You know with her, you're not like completely yeah, he said that, it's like seeing my goal come true. My goal as a father has always been for her to like to be on her own two feet, to finally get her title as a lawyer. Like it's that's the

end goal. That's it. That's the only thing I wanted as a father, And like that's the most important thing for parents everywhere, I think, is to see your child through to that. Not only the goal, but my dream, you know, like this hard you know, and this war and this country or wherever you go, Like the kids finished the school. I mean, I got a lot of family in the United States, and most of them, the young people of my family, they don't not even finish

her school for some other reason. And that's important, and oh I feel proud of that, you know. But it's it's not easy. It's it's hard sometimes. But just Camino, you're up in the end of El Camino, he said, you know, I think you catch that. I'm proud. In English,

as we all are back. He was like, in America, if you work hard enough, you can do anything, which is something that he's told me since I was a kid, and he's you know, he says, like, that's why I tell my girls, like, if you work hard enough, you can do anything here. It's different over there. You can't. That's not the same. You know, you can work as hard as a dog there for years, your whole life and not get anything. That's you know, that's the beauty

of America. You know. He's like, sometimes, you know, the path isn't easy, you know, He's like, I'm not saying it's easy. Sometimes you get it's really really hard, but you just stick to it. You know, you stick to it until you get to where you're going. And sometimes you don't know where you're going, but if you keep working hard, it will become clear and you just have to have a lot of determination and a lot of hard work. Come on, Noms and it stills the Neils.

But in Mexico than the in he said. He was like, yeah, first of all, like, yes, there's there's a lot of discrimination here in the US. Um He's like, but don't get me wrong, there's discrimination everywhere. But that being said,

there is a lot here that I've experienced. And so raising a girl like my wife as well as I like, I tried to teach them not only you know, to not be that way and to you know, respect people and to be the opposite of those people that do discriminate against us, but also at the same time to be very weary of those people, because you know, one thing is an insult, the other thing is that they could be very dangerous. The scores come in. St. Mary's

is going into the next round against Baylor. It's always some Baylor in the end. Always they're like our arch nemesis. With one win already under their belts, the team is feeling fresh. In the upcoming round. Jasmine and Mariella will argue for the plaintiff, while Andy and Cole will act as witnesses. You know how to use some ice, you know. Okay,

we again, let's get always ready. Remember all of the steps as impeachment, you made statement, you were telling the truth, you were complete, you were accurate, you were truthful, and you'll know all these things. But you know how we forget. I'm just like a running the through you. We need to break this curse of it's been like, even when we're really good and we get to semifinals, or even when we get two finals, you always lose to Baylor.

If they could win this round, right, if they come out victory in this round, then it's leave your advocacy alone. Let's talk about these little things and figure out why they're happening. Once you reach a certain standard, you can maintain that standard. And we just haven't reached that standard yet. We're still growing and I don't know when it's going to happen, but you know it is happening for us. We are getting better and we'll continue to get better.

We love you, love it, June, right right, Okay. In another room in San Antonio, this one a living room, Jasmine's parents are glued to their computer screen, watching their daughters. Opening. Good afternoon, your honor. My name is Jasmine Gene and I, along with my co counsel Mariola and Sinnis, represent the plaintiff, Mr Chris Williams. Yes, let's time to do a real good tim She's always been very, very motivated on on

this criminal thing since the third grade. And she was asked what she wanted to do is major, and she said, I want to be a criminal lawyer. Always. She hasn't a blood as far as being that career as your parents. We're kind of like surprise and shot the she wants something like that. I always thought she was going to be a professor of university or somewhere. Don't let them get you first. I didn't know that those were the

words that Officer Lavelle lived by. I didn't know that those were the words that Officer Lavelle preached to the members of his own security team. I didn't know that when I went to all them pavilion that day. The opening is innovative, powerful. It's written from the plaintiffs point of view. The judges imagine being Chris Williams, a victim of violence by security guards that left him paralyzed. They picked me up and they slam my head onto the pavement and I can just hear and feel the bones

of my neck breaking. And they picked me up one more time. I just filled my head rock and I can't feel my body. I can't feel anything. They dropped me into a puddle of mud and they walk away. And the last thing I remember seeing our pink shirts with the word security on them. This is the first day as a quadriplegic. We will ask that you find the only just verdict. To find them. She's a beautiful

girl and she loves she plays. Then Mariella steps into the role of being an advocate for her first mock trial ever. She's cross examining a witness. Now, Dr Hatch, I want to talk to you think about something that we can't agree on. We can agree that Chris has stained his injuries, one sir, and he sustained those injuries while being escorted out of the pavilion. Certainly, yes, being escorted out by the security team at Alden Pavilion. Yes, now solid solid, She looks strong. Were in the last

people you remember being nine? She's been looking nervous in practice, right, but look at her. She looks like she's been here before. Thank you, Dr Hatch. That one possible way of raising his head. That's consistent with Chris William's version of the story. Um. That well, the theoretical possibility. Yes, I see somebody who is blossoming right in front of our eyes. They put his arms behind his back and they slammed his head head first into the pavement. And that is Chris felt it.

The bones in his neck break and he yelled at them, trying to tell them that they had hurt him, but they didn't care. They just kept going. Not until they felt they had enough did they stop. At which point

they lifted Chris up and his head fell forward. And that's when Chris felt it, this body that he had trained, this body that was so full of life just minutes before it went completely limp okay, Mariella, Director Chris Williams, I thought was was great, and I thought I appreciated that you focused on what came out and crossed and really kind of came back and hammered that home with the redirect. And also, Mariella, I got your final Argumentum

was terrific. Like the words that were done was captivating, powerful, persuasive, effective, like you had me like just watching your every move on screen, so I can tell that you put in the work, but you weren't reading it. You were actually delivering it. And you were like looking into your camera and you were really making me believe what you were selling me. So I just wanted to commend you on that as well. So both of you ladies, good job

for too plaintive as well. Alright, all the defense side real quick. It was a huge adrenaline Rutch walking out of there. And then he called me Mike Tyson. I mean that in a good way. As a coach. He doesn't lie to us. He doesn't sugarcoat a single thing. If we're bad, he's gonna tell us we're rad. He's gonna help us be better. Knowing that he said that, like I did well, I knew for sure that I had done well. Back in the tab room, A j is seeing the tournament results in real time. WHOA, what

are the odds of that? Taylor scored ninety three points the first round. You scored ninety three points the second round. Interesting, That is really interesting. St. Mary's took a ballot which puts us at four. Still puts this in front of Baylor, which is nice eighty six plus one two, so they're guaranteed quarterfinal. They have six ballots. They're kicking, but there's

short rib tacos and there's ribby tacolers hard parts. And we had dinner before we went on to the second day, and he's like, I want to talk for like a good fifteen minutes. Get business out of the way so we can have fun tonight. You, young lady, were amazing today. Okay. I want you to know that I was extremely proud of you. It was your first clothes, was your first direct, it was your first cross and you looked the part the entire time. All right, I need you to keep

doing that. So we're in third place. How often do I tell you how we're doing? Never? Never, we're in third place. You all need to step up. She needs you. We're not expecting Mariella to be up here with you. But here's the thing, you weren't up here. Your advocacy is fantastic. The words that you're using, the delivery, all of that is fantastic. I wouldn't change a single word

that you did today. What if I've been complaining with you guys from BOE But the errors, the unforced right, you had you were today, but you should have stomped those teams. So we're in third. We're in a good position, right, we are totally in control of our destiny. We're and we're in quarterfinals? Is not good enough for you? It's not when and we're in Okay, we could be the two seed tomorrow, which puts us in a great position

to get into semifinals. And then it's a new game, so you gotta be hungry for it as a team, not as an individual. As a team. So I had a lot of clothes. You gotta have fun. None of this is worth that if you're not having fun. Okay, let's see. It's great bread, it's not fund The next day, heading into the quarterfinals, Jasmine and mari Yella represent the plaintiff again, they're feeling loose, confident, they're having fun. I gotta be sure I could do this for the team,

for all the women, all the Mexicans out there. I got ya on this one. This is it. This is all people did. But leaving you look at lawless. Let see you sensify oy or two people want, hey, what's up your honor? Playing? Jazzy called me Jas Michael Joshi can't better yet a great person, you know what I'm talking about. This for Chris Williams. Chris Williams is in the schoolhouse and you were fighting for him. Yeah, you are make your team proud. St Mary's be out here,

STEMIs this the time of you feel me? Who wore the deepest press ever team in my life? Coach? Maybe on here your bomb might be on their boyfriends on there, may Ella's days on there. This one's for all the Mexican handa. This this for the next a game like I'm not even mind you, for the next gens, for all these people who got here. Let us allowest being law school, allowest. People are abou talking to you, Sonia. Yeah, this is for some of the sometime I want practice

when you preach. This is it the quarterfinal? It's about to start. The court is assembling online. What about the plane? James hi Flox, Sorry, I'll a plate tiff this year. Thank you for that clarification, as I placed him the chat and I made the announcing earlier. Please change your name to read your role whether you're a plaintiff or defense a dash and then your full name. Mariella calls her first witness, played by Cole to the stand, what happened at the point when you were slammed into the

ground head first? I could, I can feel and hear the bones of my neck breaking. I yelled at a stop that they were breaking my neck, but they just kept on beating me up. At what point were you injured? He cannot testify as to what he was actually injured. He cannot diagnose himself. Here, your honor, may I be heard. You're right, you're honor. He's testifying to hit his own experience.

I think he would know when he was unable to stop walking and was unable to feel his body, and that is the injury that we are here today about, is his quadriplegia runs. I'll repeat my question, Chris, at what point were you injured? I was injured when the security guards of all the pavilion put there and put my hands behind my back and slide my head into the ground. And Chris, when you got there. Pride were in a quarterfinal round and we're doing great. I mean,

everything seems to be going along just fine. I think we're the better team. I think we're performing better teams, doing everything that I could possibly ask of them, and then this happens. Question for the plaintiffs team, Is there only one attorney? Uh? No, they left, there's two. Um, we are switching out the names because we have one advocate room. But I received the phone call saying, hey, the judges are saying that you guys are cheating because

you have one advocate playing all the roles. I said, no, that that isn't true. We have two advocates, we have two witnesses. We have two different people doing the two roles. So at first when they said it, I, you know, I won't say that, I was incredulous. At first when it was like, I thought it was a joke. I thought it was someone was being trying to be funny, you know. And but then I got a second phone call and the judges were insisting that we had one

person performing all of the advocate roles. I said that we have two different people up there, once tall, one short, ones thin with a long face, one is a little heavier with a round face. One is wearing makeup, one's just wearing bass. One is wearing a black suit, one is wearing a blue suit. And I could see the different colors of the suits on the screen. One is wearing pearled ear rings. The other one is wearing no

ear rings. They both have long hair, but one has it over their shoulder and the other one has it behind they're back. So the only thing that's similar to them is that they're both latin Us. They're both brown skinned. That's the only thing that's similar to them. Other than that, it's two completely different people and you can't make them up. So and you are miss yes, yes, aneys Well, who thinks we're the same? Okay, you're on there. The interruption

is bizarre. It comes right before Mariella has to deliver a lengthy and complex closing argument for the prosecution. No one else has had to do this. Mariella, she fights through it. Don't let them get you first. The words that Joe Lovell lives by, the words that he preaches to his fellow security guards, The words spoken by the person who was supposed to keep concert goer safe the

night of June nineteen. Defense wants you to believe that Chris struggled, that he was going crazy and resisting, but Defense also implies that he could have sustained his injuries while crowd surfing or even slam dancing, but nobody else's stories aligned with that, even their own expert and hours say that the injuries were sustained after he was crowd tripping in after he was slam dancing. For that reason, again, we asked that you find Alden Pavilion liable for the

injuries that were sustained by Chris Williams. On June. Thank you an yes before you all remove yourselves from the room or before we adjourn, rather, can we have the team for the play tim We need to verify who which one of you all did which portions of the trial, So can you yes, your honor sorry, yes, bailiff, so I Mario Lancinas did the direct of Chris Williams as well as the cross of Dr Hatch and the closing, and my co council Jasmine Olgen did the opening, the

direct of Dr Alvarez and then the cross of Joe la Bell. Thank you for that, but also when they're like what he would like you, could you kid please turn your cameras on and get ready to give these teams camera. With a few minutes to spare before the verdict, the team drives over to a J's office. By then

the results would come out. So I called him into the conference room and I told them and UM, you know, I think you could tell by looking at me, and you know, obviously the your fans out there, you know, don't see my face and the tears are reforming. It's real. Um, we did not advance. Um. You know, sometimes you lose and you know you wonder if you left it on the floor or not. You know, did you leave it on the field or you know, you didn't do your

best or it's it's very upsetting to me. I can't imagine how you guys feel, because I know in my heart that you guys were not just the better advocates, but you were substantially better than the other team. But in this case, the same thing happened that happened to us in the first round. It went to a tie break, and we lost in the tiebreak, which is a really hard pill to swallow. That angers me, I know it angers you. You You can define that however you want

to define it. I know how I'm defining it. Did that play a role in their final decision? I don't know, but it's it's really upsetting and I'm sorry, but this isn't the first time in your life that that's going to happen, and it's not going to be the last times in your life that's going to happen. There's nothing I can do to make it better. So we lost that round. We lost that round two to one. You did. I'd like to tell you something different, but I got

nothing more to tell you. There's literally nothing we can do about that. Nothing rather than I'm sorry. In the immediacy of that happening, not really knowing what was going on though, what were your thoughts? Honestly, I think the part that hurts the most is probably the misidentification. I think they're so interconnected, the fact that they thought we were cheating because of the misidentification. But the misidentification hurt a little more. There's literally no way to train and

prepare for that. But then later on, when you found out that there was this, I mean, I'm I'm beyond upset about it. I'm like so impressed with how calm you are about this. But Jasmine, in that moment later on, when you found out that there was this insinuation, if not outright accusation, that you and Mariella had been cheating in this round, what was your what was your reaction, M upset and heard I think I is really confused, Like I was kind of in shock. Everyone else was

like pretty upset about it. But I couldn't like cry right away because I'm like, there's no way that just happened like that round yeah, just yeah. Honestly, what I take away is it doesn't matter how hard I work, how much time or or energy I put into something, things like this will still cost me. And it's a hard pill to swallow. It's something that you have to learn, unfortunately in a predominantly white field that it might affect you. Um this sent around it was judges and you're in practice.

It might be juries. It might be the judge, it might be a juror, it might be opposing counsel, it might be someone right. It's just this is a hurdle that has to be jumped that not everybody's going to have to jump with you. Jasmine has that experience at best in Texas with do you have a description of what you thought happened? I mean, I don't know, Like you don't have to agree with me, Jasmine, but it sounds like racism to me. It sounds like on a

good day, some type of implicit bias. Maybe I don't know, but has that affected you, Jasmine in any way on your outlook on just life, not just on mock trial, but luck on life. It definitely has. It makes it just makes me scared that that is ever going to

affect me in the future. When I'm representing a client, I don't want to go up there and you know, do an open or close and people are listening to what I'm saying, What if we have the better case and they're instead going to look at me different because the way I look like, maybe they're going to look at me is less and they're going to see, oh this, you know, other attorney superior because color of their skin.

And that is what scares me. And we've now had three teams that are Latino, so I'm proud of what we've done there and increasing the diversity of the team. We still have room to grow. I'm here to train students to be lawyers, and most of these kids are going to be lawyers here right here in San Antonio, where the color of their skin in a courtroom doesn't matter if you run down to the courthouse. Right now,

a great deal of those attorneys or Latino Latina. They're not going to face what they faced last weekend here. Oddly enough, I believe that the world is good. I do. I believe that most of our intentions are right. Even in this situation. The folks that had our kids go through this, I do not doubt for a second that they do not think they did anything wrong, that they were just clarifying. So what I want them to do

is I want them to just be strong. I want them to continue to work on becoming trial lawyers, to represent people that go through what they went through, go through it because of their job or their daily life or whatever it is that they do. I am not preparing competitors. I am preparing lawyers, trial lawyers. I'm preparing them for life and the real courtroom. One of lawyers in the United States are Latino women. One point three.

If it's a very small percentage, very small. Our school is like Hispanic something seventy eighty, like something crazy above the norm in terms of law schools in the United States. And then the team, the team itself is like sevent Hispanic. So I'm like already, well, like wherever St. Mary's goes, our students, the majority of them are Hispanic, and what

does that say? What does that say to that kid that maybe like took out loans and works two jobs and you know, takes care of their a wait, that like at home and it's really struggling to stay in school. But they really should badly want to be an attorney, but they go somewhere and they just keep getting knocked down. Like what does that say? It's al Grito Mexican Independence Day and Andy has come home to Frida, her family's restaurant,

to celebrate. Lady you Gio. I saw her passion since she was in high school, and even before that, she's like probably middle school. She was always like such a social advocate. She's always like interesting further into what's going on in the country, in the world, always loving history, always loving like espreading in the world about rights and why things should be this way and that way, and for the same time expressing why things weren't perfect and

have been pass in the universe. And you could see her joy and her like explosion of like so many ideas and so many just you know, passion, but intelligence and brightness and good. That's Andy's mom. Rosa Viscara is Louise Speranza and her here an here and here positively comparative Esperanza Speranza, the lower thank us, yeah, cost there.

For me, it's important to always celebrate these dates with my children as showed them, and remind them that this is who you are, and this is where we come from, and this is our detory, and you should know who it allegories, and you should know what the great represents, and you should know what the flag represents, the whole history behind it. And because I will just make you richer and broader and wise here and more tolerant and

more understand you know everybody's difference points of view. But you know, if you have a strong foundation. I have always believed that. I mean, it's like a house, right, you have to have a strong foundation so you can hold the wind and the hurricanes and everything that comes to you. And that comes from family, it comes from history, as kids reminded of it. You gotta know what degree is, you gotta know what what it means. But it's an

opportunity to come together. It's an opportunity to let your friends to savor the flavors in Mexico. So that's just the importance of it. Rest. Now he cannot own Barria mor else forties. They do meaner bevign there tomorrows your not yea be there you go, you go, Biva you go. Hi. My name is Andy the Scara and I had an interview with the District Attorney's office today. UM. I thought the interview went pretty well. I mean, like I hope. UM. I will always like knock on wood when I say that,

But I mean I think they liked me. I'm feeling good this morning. UM going into it like I'm ready. Oh my gosh, I'm not. But I say, where's the nay of the American representation in state government? How many cabinet members in state governing a Native Erica? How many Native Americans on the circuit court bench throughout the state of South Dakota. Then I have a name that's next time on Class Action. Last Action is a production of I Heart Radio and Sound Argument, Created, produced, and edited

by Kevin Huffman and Lisa Gray. This episode was written by Wendy Nardi. Executive producers are Taylor Chacogne and Katrina Norvell. Sound design, editing and mixing by Evan Tire and Taylor Chacogne. Additional editing by Carl K. Robinson. This episode had additional field production by Kristen Cabrera and Alfredo Della Garza. For more podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your favorite shows.