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Students Learn About Typical Trial in Not-So-Typical Way

WILKES-BARRE — Some special education students got a special treat Thursday at the Luzerne County Courthouse. What started out as a typical field trip had...
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WILKES-BARRE -- Some special education students got a special treat Thursday at the Luzerne County Courthouse.

What started out as a typical field trip had a storybook ending.

This is not your typical trial at the courthouse -- Cinderella is prosecuting Cruella DeVille, Minnie Mouse is defending her, and the Seven Dwarves are part of the jury.

Judge Tina Gartley is taking this case seriously because it's helping special education students from Good Shepherd Academy in Kingston.

The characters in the courtroom are actually lawyers from the Luzerne County District Attorney's Office. Some of them are even detectives.

Every aspect of this hour-long mock trial was run like a real one.

"We the jury found Cruella guilty of dog-napping," said the jury.

Cruella Deville was convicted, and the students learned what a typical trial is like, in a not-so-typical way.

"We want to make the courthouse so they understand what happens here," said Judge Tina Gartley. "We said earlier it was a castle, and we said it looked like a castle, but what happens here is we take care of matters that need to come before the court. I think the kids understood that, but they also understood it on a very personal level."

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