Mock Trial Inspires Future Careers

Seven years ago, then-9-year-old Flor Jimenez and her brother watched their father Luis get treated with what they thought was unnecessary roughness by a New Haven police officer. She says her father’s subsequent complaint has never been resolved.

Justice came more swiftly Tuesday when Flor, now 16 and a tenth-grader at Metropolitan Business Academy, presided over a different case as a judge.

She was, of course, a mock judge in a mock yet moving criminal trial that unfolded in U.S. District Court at 141 Church St. as part of the annual Law Day celebration.

Flor is part of social studies teacher Nataliya Braginsky’s tenth-grade law class. She and her peers prepared for weeks with local attorneys who have visited the school. They appeared on Tuesday as attorneys, witnesses, jurors, and courtroom officials, along side their real counterparts in the courtroom of U.S. Magistrate Judge Sarah Merriam.

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