12.Brendan Kells — Direct
51 linesBRENDAN KELLS, duly sworn
COURT CLERK: Have a seat. State your name, spell your first and last name for the record, keep your voice up and speak into the mic so everyone can hear you.
BRENDAN KELLS: Brendan Kells, B-R-E-N-D-A-N, K-E-L-L-S.
DIRECT EXAMINATION BY MS. CONRAD:
MS. CONRAD: Good afternoon, Mr. Kells.
BRENDAN KELLS: Good afternoon.
MS. CONRAD: Where do you work?
BRENDAN KELLS: Cambridge Rindge and Latin High School.
MS. CONRAD: And how long have you worked there?
BRENDAN KELLS: This is my ninth year.
MS. CONRAD: What do you teach?
BRENDAN KELLS: I teach in the history department. I teach U.S. history I, sociology and economics.
MS. CONRAD: Do you also help run some student activities and organizations?
BRENDAN KELLS: Yeah. Yes, I do.
MS. CONRAD: And which ones in particular?
BRENDAN KELLS: Currently I coach baseball, the JV baseball team, and I am the advisor for the Model United Nations club.
MS. CONRAD: Tell us what Model United Nations club is.
BRENDAN KELLS: The Model U.N. club is an extracurricular academic club that engages students in issues around international diplomacy, and it culminates in students participating in conferences. We go to two conferences a year, typically, as a club.
MS. CONRAD: And where are those conferences held?
BRENDAN KELLS: One of them's here in Boston, the Harvard Model United Nations club. It's housed at the Sheraton Boston. And then the other one is in New York City, housed at the Hilton there.
MS. CONRAD: Now, do students earn credit for participating in this?
BRENDAN KELLS: No.
MS. CONRAD: And is it something where you can just show up and go to the conference?
BRENDAN KELLS: No.
MS. CONRAD: Is there -- so tell us what kind of preparation work goes into that.
BRENDAN KELLS: I mean, it's an academic commitment that students make when they join Model U.N. It requires a good amount of outside work and research in going into it, and most of our work as a club meeting on a weekly basis is in preparation for conference so that students can best represent our delegation in the committee that they've been assigned. So it's very research oriented.
MS. CONRAD: And is that research that the students do on their own?
BRENDAN KELLS: Primarily, yes.
MS. CONRAD: And at some point did you meet Jahar Tsarnaev?
BRENDAN KELLS: Yes.
MS. CONRAD: And when did you meet him and how?
BRENDAN KELLS: I believe it was the school year 2010 to 2011 as a member of the Model United Nations club.
MS. CONRAD: Now, the types of students who typically join that club, how would you compare their level of academic motivation to other students?
BRENDAN KELLS: They're fairly academically inclined to take on such a robust extracurricular activity.
MS. CONRAD: And what types of topics do they address in preparing for the conferences?
BRENDAN KELLS: It's widely varied. I mean, it's kind of on a year-by-year basis. Mostly current events of international relations, the conferences that we're at are United Nations simulations. So any sort of topic that the United Nations in real life would deal with is something that our club also deals with.
MS. CONRAD: And do the students pick the position that they're going to take?
BRENDAN KELLS: Not exactly, no.
MS. CONRAD: So how does that work?
BRENDAN KELLS: So we get -- when we get accepted to go to a conference, we get assigned as a delegation to represent a particular country. And then as a delegation, each individual student is assigned to a committee, and they have to represent our country, the one that we've been assigned, their interests, as a piece of this simulation that is happening at conference. So they're not necessarily choosing their own personal opinions when they're defending it.
MS. CONRAD: And did Jahar participate in a conference?
BRENDAN KELLS: He did.
MS. CONRAD: Which one?
BRENDAN KELLS: The Harvard Model U.N. conference here in Boston.
MS. CONRAD: And do you remember when that would have been for the 2010-2011 school year?
BRENDAN KELLS: I couldn't give you an exact date. It's usually at just about the last weekend in January or maybe the first weekend of February, right in that range.
MS. CONRAD: I have no further questions. Thank you.
MS. PELLEGRINI: I have nothing, your Honor.
THE COURT: Nothing? All right, Mr. Kells. Thank you.
(The witness is excused.)
MR. WATKINS: Tiarrah Dottin.