GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) - If not for the efforts of two young lawyers, a great Grand Island tradition would have died.
The Goldilocks mock trial almost didn’t happen this year, because the group that organized the program disbanded, The Grand Island Independent reported. But Audrey Rowley, 32, and Grady Erickson, 30, stepped up to make sure the perennial Grand Island favorite continued.
District Judge Teresa Luther, who has participated in the Goldilocks trial for 23 years, called school officials to encourage a resurrection of the program. But Luther gives all the credit to Erickson and Rowley for reviving Goldilocks. The two Grand Island Senior High graduates attended the Goldilocks trial when they were third-graders.
Erickson and Rowley said educators handle a lot of the organizing because they’re so familiar with the Goldilocks routine.
Still, the two young attorneys not only brought the program back to life, they expanded it. A total of 958 third-graders attended the mock trials this year.
This time, the trials extended over three days - Monday, Tuesday and Thursday - instead of two. Joining the regular attendees this year were Doniphan-Trumbull, Chapman and Wood River.
Students from Dodge Elementary, Chapman and 1R attended the final Goldilocks trial of the week Thursday afternoon.
The young jurors take their duties seriously. One of the 11 trials this week ended with a hung jury. Erickson said. Another jury asked to inspect the broken chair - the key piece of evidence each year in the case of State v. Goldilocks.
Goldilocks has gone on trial in Hall County since 1988, which means the springtime tradition has lasted 30 years.
If the Goldilocks trial disappeared, just think of the rituals that would go with it.
People wouldn’t be able to see a bailiff tell a bear to “raise your right paw” and repeat after him, or the dramatic moment when the defense calls Goldilocks to the stand. Observers also wouldn’t be able to see attorneys outraged about the behavior of imaginary characters.
Thursday afternoon, Katie Doering was the defense attorney and Andrew Hanquist the prosecutor.
As usual, the state painted Goldilocks as a horrible human being - someone who tracks mud and snow through the bears’ home and recklessly destroys a chair. Hanquist said Goldilocks made a series of bad decisions, one of which was depriving Baby Bear of “a marvelous soup.”
Doering portrayed Goldilocks as a fine young lady who was lost, freezing and hungry.
When she awoke, instead of receiving help, Goldilocks said she found “three wild animals all around me, growling. I thought they were going to eat me alive!”
Marty Klein served as the judge Thursday afternoon. At one point, he told an aggressive Hanquist to “rein it in a bit.”
In spite of a powerful closing argument by Doering, the jury found Goldilocks guilty of all three charges.
The setting was familiar to three of the four Northwest students who played the storybook characters. Students from Grand Island Senior High and Central Catholic had their turns earlier.
Sophomore Cydra Bruns, who played Baby Bear, was a Goldilocks jury foreman when she was a third-grader at Gates Elementary.
Senior Jackson Richling and sophomore Ashley Scott know Judge Luther’s courtroom well because it’s the setting for many mock trial competitions.
Abby Miller, who played Mama Bear, said it’s very important to teach young people about government.
As Mama Bear, Miller used a Southern accent and tried to make the character “seem a little ditsy.”
She wanted to create a character that was fun and something students could “grasp onto, but not distract them from the real message.”
Bruns tried to make Baby Bear “kind of clueless,” because a five-year-old wouldn’t have any idea what goes on in court, she said.
Somebody like Baby Bear would “just know that their chair is broken, and they’re upset. Their property got stolen or taken away from them,” she said. Five-year-olds “know what is theirs.”
Scott didn’t get off scot-free at all Thursday. In all four trials, she was found guilty of at least one of the charges.
One youngster in the gallery even suggested that Goldilocks be executed. Fortunately, calmer heads prevailed.
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Information from: The Grand Island Independent, http://www.theindependent.com
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