Two days later Lisa and the rest of the prosecutors-in-training had gone through the arrest, bond, arraignment, and pre-trial of a woman charged with cyberstalking. In their mock scenario, an estranged wife obtained her husband's password and used it to read his emails and download documents before locking him out of his accounts. Later, she filed for divorce with the personal information taken from the emails and posted some of the most embarrassing tidbits all over his social media. The judge in the divorce case notified the police.
Now that they'd reached the actual trial part, they were going to take turns examining the State's first witness, the detective who investigated the case.
Lisa's fingers tightened around the legal pad she'd spent all night filling with questions. The extra caffeine she needed to get herself going that morning had her leg shaking so bad it kept banging against the table. She was an Olympic sprinter itching to leap off the blocks.
Chris took his place as judge at the front of the room with a short table set in front of him to act as the judicial bench. On one side of his makeshift bench was a podium for the prosecutor. On the other, a chair for the witness. For this scenario they were going without a defense attorney in order to move quickly and give them all a chance to play the role.
"Okay," Chris said as he zipped up his black robe. "Which one of you is brave enough to go first?"
Lisa counted to five in her head so as to not appear too eager. When everyone else diverted eye contact, she raised her hand and tried to appear nonchalant.
Chris smiled as he gestured to the podium. "Ms. Manobal, come on up."
Lisa gathered her pad, divided in sections by color-coded post-its, and three pens, her favorite and two back-ups. As she crossed in front of Roseanne, she couldn't help but peer at her from her periphery and offer her a smug little smirk.
Coward.
Her ever-composed nemesis smiled.
Aw, shit.
"Now we need a detective. Does anyone—"
"I'll do it." Roseanne was already standing when she interrupted Chris.
"Okay. I like the hustle there, Ms. Park. Please take your place on the witness stand and I'll swear you in."
With every ounce of willpower in her being, Lisa forced herself not to look at Roseanne as she sauntered up to the front of the room in a fitted gray pantsuit and shit-eating grin. In the moments it took Chris to go through the formalities of starting their pretend trial, she took steady breaths and slowed her racing heart to a trot.
"State," Chris's voice knocked her into the present. "You may examine your witness."
With her eyes fixed on the handwritten questions, Lisa started with basics like the detective's background, training, and experience. She made an effort to turn the pages as quickly as possible so as to conceal her trembling hands.
"Time out," Chris interrupted, his hands connecting in a T-shape. "Since this is a learning exercise and you volunteered to go first, I might be pausing things quite a bit. This isn't personal. It's just so we can all learn and improve."
Lisa's heart crawled up her throat as her skin flushed uncomfortably. She hadn't made it two minutes without making a mistake. Being corrected in front of everyone would've been embarrassing enough, but Roseanne's relaxed posture and snotty expression made it a thousand times worse.
"I can tell you put a lot of thought into your questions," Chris started with a compliment, which only made Lisa feel stupider. "But you don't want to be too rigid with it. It's not a script, okay? Examining a witness is a little more fluid than that. It's more like a dance. An art. If you're too focused on what you're going to say next, you'll miss what the witness is giving you. Plus, juries hate to listen to people read. So have an idea in your head of what you want to say but try and be a little more flexible. Try and connect your next question to her answer."
