Two Pennsylvania State Police troopers recently received awards for exemplary service in law enforcement at a luncheon of the Lehigh County Chiefs of Police Association at DeSales University in Center Valley.

On Jan. 13, Lehigh County District Attorney James B. Martin presented the Police Officer of the Year award to State Trooper Stephen DeAngeles of Troop M, Fogelsville Station, and the 27th annual Col. John K. Schafer Memorial Award to State Trooper Raymond M. Judge of Troop M, Bethlehem.

The latter award is named after a former Pennsylvania State Police commissioner who had a 23-year career with the state police, part of which was with Troop M.

Col. Schafer's son, Craig, attended the luncheon with his family.

DeAngeles was credited with helping to save the life of a 2-year-old girl who was being driven to a hospital when the girl and her father got stuck in a backlog of traffic caused by a multi-vehicle crash on Interstate 78 west on Aug. 11, 2014. The vehicle was being driven by the father's neighbor.

DeAngeles responded to the scene and saw the vehicle stopped on the shoulder of the highway. The girl, who was unconscious, was lying across the lap of her father, who was trying to help her to breathe. DeAngeles directed the father to get into the back of the patrol vehicle and called the Fogelsville station to report that he was going to provide emergency transport to Lehigh Valley Hospital.

Another motorist, who was an off-duty emergency medical technician, offered her help, and DeAngeles asked her to get in the back of the vehicle with the girl and her father. Two other troopers responded to assist DeAngeles by escorting him through the traffic backup.

The hospital was notified, and the girl was rushed into the emergency room. The child recovered.

Six minutes had elapsed from the time DeAngeles saw the car on the side of the road and the time the child arrived at the hospital.

"Because of the quick response of Trooper DeAngeles in assessing the dire situation and the efforts of the emergency medical technician and the other two troopers, that girl is alive today," Martin said.

Judge has worked on numerous high-profile homicides in the Lehigh Valley. Martin called Judge "a thorough, tenacious investigator."

Judge investigated the following:

· The case of Michael Ballard, who was sentenced to death for fatally stabbing four people in a Northampton Borough home in 2010. Judge responded to the scene, obtained admissions from Ballard, traced Ballard's movements before the killings and obtained crucial evidence.

· The 1985 murder of a man that resulted in a 2010 Northampton County Grand Jury presentment and a third-degree murder plea by Lucinda Andrews. Judge re-interviewed Andrews, located and interviewed previously unknown witnesses and re-examined physical evidence.

· The 2011 killing of an Alburtis mother and daughter in their home. Judge assisted the primary investigator in tracking the defendant, Brandon Kasick, to Florida, where he interviewed him. Kasick pleaded guilty and is serving a life sentence.

· The 2014 case in which the burned body of a woman was found in Jim Thorpe, Carbon County. Judge obtained evidence that led to the arrest of Anthony Heath, who was interviewed by Judge and another trooper in North Carolina. The investigation determined that the homicide occurred in Allentown. The case is pending in Lehigh County Court.

· The 2014 case of a man who was shot and killed outside a Lower Macungie Township apartment complex. Judge obtained evidence from other states where the defendant, Alex Brown, had been, and he and another trooper went to Texas to interview Brown and to collect evidence, including the murder weapon. Brown was charged and remains incarcerated in Texas on other charges while awaiting extradition to Pennsylvania.

· The November 2014 disappearance of a woman whose body was later discovered on the Allen Township property of her stepfather, Gregory Graf, who was charged in her death. Graf is awaiting trial in Northampton County.