Montgomery County, PA

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 8, 2011

 

 

 

      

Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman announces the results of the DA’s Office’s Eighth Annual Summer Intern Trial Competition held between July 27th and August 3rd, 2011.  Fourteen law students competed in this year’s competition.  The competitors were certified legal interns from this summer’s class of 41 volunteers.  The 14 competitors in this summer’s competition are approved and certified under Pa. B.A.R. 321 and 322 by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court so that they could practice law in the District Courts and Courts of Common Pleas under the supervision of the Deputy District Attorneys in the office.

 

The final round of the competition took place on August 3, 2011, in Courtroom 4 of the Montgomery County Courthouse.  The finalists prosecuted an elaborate car-bombing murder where the defendant was charged with hiring an explosives expert to build and plant a bomb in the car of his spouse’s lover all under the pretense that it was going to be a stunt in a movie.  This hypothetical scenario was created by a staff member of the District Attorney’s Office and included legal hurdles and factual inconsistencies to create difficulty in the case.  The District Attorney sat as the Judge for the case and the Jury was made up of Assistant District Attorneys and office staff.  This year’s winners were Anthony Coccerino and Kathleen McCahey.  Anthony is from Philadelphia, PA, and is entering his third year at Temple University School of Law.  Kathleen is from Staten Island, NY, and is entering her third year at Villanova University School of Law.  The runners-up were: Stew Ryan of Blue Bell, PA, and Widener University School of Law; and Ealy Ko of Colmar, PA, and Vanderbilt University Law School.  

 

 

 

     Approved for release:

 

     Risa Vetri Ferman