{"id":313739,"date":"2026-08-04T20:48:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T20:48:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/313739\/"},"modified":"2026-08-04T20:48:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T20:48:09","slug":"9th-grader-mock-trial-event-presided-over-by-civil-court-judge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/313739\/","title":{"rendered":"9th grader mock trial event presided over by Civil Court judge"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe case of the social media riot\u00a0<\/p>\n

The fictional case, State v. Bennett, centered on a social media influencer named Jay Bennett, known for his extravagant and often spontaneous public events. Bennett allegedly started a riot by enticing thousands of people to attend \u201cTurn Up, Downtown,\u201d promising a list of high-profile giveaways.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The atmosphere became increasingly chaotic, to the point that a thrown fire extinguisher injured an attendee. This triggered a series of unruly and violent actions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Members<\/a>Members of the prosecution team. Photo: Wayne Daren Schneiderman\/Brooklyn Eagle<\/p>\n

Bennett, who was livestreaming in his car, continued to urge his followers to \u201cturn things up.\u201d Eventually, he realized the situation was spiraling out of control and attempted to call the giveaway off, but things had apparently gone too far, and Bennett left the scene, causing the crowd to become more riotous. Police were called, and several were arrested. Following the event, Bennett was charged with a class E felony of riot in the first degree.<\/p>\n

Edwards maintained a realistic courtroom atmosphere, holding the participants to professional standards rather than treating them leniently. There was no official verdict, as participants were evaluated on their performance rather than the legal strength of their arguments.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the end, the prosecution team was victorious.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Uzma Sherieff, the Brooklyn site director for the Legal Outreach Summer Law Institute, said she was \u201cbeyond impressed\u201d with the students\u2019 knowledge of the substantive and procedural elements of criminal law and how they\u2019d applied it to the mock trial.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, I\u2019m just blown away by their performances,\u201d Sherieff said. \u201cWatching them was incredibly rewarding.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Members<\/a>Members of the defense team. Photo: Wayne Daren Schneiderman\/Brooklyn EagleJudge Edwards\u2019 commentary<\/p>\n

After the trial, Edwards addressed the audience and participants. \u201cI\u2019m so proud of you all, and happy to be here,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has been so much fun. I\u2019m looking forward to seeing everyone here go on to whatever profession you choose,\u201d she continued. \u201cHowever, I would love to see you in my courtroom as an attorney, court officer, stenographer, administrator or an IT person. There are so many jobs in the court system at your disposal.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The judge also offered some comments and critiques on the participants\u2019 performances. \u201cWhen you\u2019re doing a presentation, you have to project, speak clearly, and with that, you will convey confidence,\u201d she said. \u201cYou should be looking the person in the eye as well. I didn\u2019t see a lot of those things going on.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Hon.<\/a>Hon. Ellen Edwards alongside the victorious prosecution team. There was no official verdict, as participants were evaluated on their performance rather than the legal strength of their arguments. Photo: Wayne Daren Schneiderman\/Brooklyn Eagle<\/p>\n

The judge also said it\u2019s important to know your materials. \u201cA lot of people were just reading,\u201d she said. \u201cYou have to be more immersed in your information.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

To close, the judge said, \u201cLaw is not an individual sport but a team effort.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Edwards, a lifelong resident of Brooklyn, emphasizes an integrated approach to the justice system, incorporating social work and a holistic view of individuals rather than treating them solely as cases.<\/p>\n

As a judge, Edwards has issued published decisions in areas such as insurance disputes, medical supply litigation and landlord-tenant matters. She earned her bachelor\u2019s degree in Urban Legal Studies from the City College of New York and her juris doctor from Emory University School of Law.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The case of the social media riot\u00a0 The fictional case, State v. Bennett, centered on a social media…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":313740,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,3308,118517,4234,9,24,63,39830],"class_list":["post-313739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-daily-bulletin","tag-ellen-e-edwards","tag-judges","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-youth-employment-kids"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=313739"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313739\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/313740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=313739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=313739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}