Two Pa. State Police troopers recently received awards for exemplary service during a luncheon of the Lehigh County Chiefs of Police Association at DeSales University, Center Valley.

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

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

DeAngeles responded and saw the vehicle stopped on the shoulder.

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 he was going to provide emergency transport to Lehigh Valley Hospital.

Another motorist, who was an off-duty emergency medical technician, offered help, and DeAngeles asked her to get in the back of the vehicle with the girl and her father. The hospital was notified, and the girl, who has recovered, was rushed into the emergency room.

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, including:

·The case of Michael Ballard, who was sentenced to death for fatally stabbing four people in a Northampton borough home in 2010.

·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.

·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.

·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.

·The November 2014 disappearance of a woman whose body was later discovered on the Allen Township property of her stepfather, Gregory Graf.