A beer recipe and a marketing plan to sell the jalapeno flavored beer were found on the computer of Sam Worker, an employee who quit his job at Spartan Brewing to work for triple his normal salary at another com­pany, Wolverine Brewing. Shortly af­ter beginning work for the competing company, Wolverine came out with a new, jalapeno flavored beer, bringing the company great success. Mix in ad­ditional facts that Wolverine Brewing had a bad year before the release of their new beer, and that Worker had breached a close relationship with his prior boss by ‘comforting’ his boss’s wife – and the 2008 Intraschool Trial Advocacy Competition facts were born.

The State of Sparta brought three charges against Worker, embezzlement, exceeding valid computer authoriza­tion, and use of a computer to commit a crime, all of which had to be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. In the final round, Worker was found not guilty on all three counts.

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