Attorney General Kamala D. Harris Honors Exemplary California Department of Justice Employees with 2015 AG Awards

SAN FRANCISCO -- Attorney General Kamala D. Harris concluded the 24th annual Attorney General’s Awards at a ceremony Friday in San Francisco. The honorees represented California Department of Justice employees who have demonstrated the highest professional work standards.  This year, 102 employees were honored throughout the Department for their accomplishments in 2014, as well as for attaining 25 years of distinguished state service. The other award winners from across the state were honored at similar ceremonies in San Diego, Sacramento, and Los Angeles earlier in the month.

“The people who work in the Department of Justice are the story behind the headlines. Many of you  toil behind the scenes, working long nights and sometimes weekends, to enforce the laws of our state. And most of the people whom your work benefits will never know your names. But you do it because you care. Thank you all for everything you do for this department and for the people of California,” said Attorney General Harris.

The awardees were as follows:

Sustained Superior Accomplishment Award

• Corinna Dunkle, Civil Law – Sacramento
• Carmen Keeler, DLE – Broadway
• Lynne McGinnis, Criminal Law – San Diego
• Sherrie Nagafuchi, DAS – Sacramento
• Sandy Shum, DAS – San Francisco
• Laura Stalford, DLE – San Diego

Award for Excellence

• Stephanie Buck, DLE – Sacramento
• Xiomara Costello, Criminal Law – Los Angeles
• Stephanie Fong, CJIS – Broadway
• Terri Hairston, DLE – Broadway
• Danielle Newman, DAS – Sacramento
• Zola Salena-Hawkins, DAS – Los Angeles
• Richard Wolfe, Civil Law – San Diego
• Karen Wong, CJIS – Broadway
• David Zonana, Public Rights – Oakland

Award for Excellence in Supervision

• Maggie Jackson, DAS – Sacramento
• Michael Mattson, DLE – San Francisco
• Thomas Patterson, Civil Law – San Francisco

Award for Excellence in Management

• Sally Magnani, Public Rights – Sacramento
• John Yoshida, DLE – Sacramento

Award for Client Representation or Prosecution

• Jonathan Cooper, Civil Law – San Francisco
• Mark Cumba, Criminal Law – San Diego
• Joel Jacobs, Public Rights – Oakland

Peace Officer Award

• Eric Froeschner, Criminal Law – Laguna Woods

Citizenship Award

• Stacie Bolden, DAS – Los Angeles
• Leda Hayes, DAS – Sacramento
• Loren Ishii, DLE – Broadway

In addition to individual awardees, groups of employees were honored for Excellence as a Team. Encompassing employees from the regions of Sacramento, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego, the Bollaert UGOTPOSTED Criminal Law team was also honored for Excellence as a Team.  This team’s members included Renee Adame, Brian Caldwell, Erica Goerzen, Jason Nichols, Victoria (Sam) Terry, Johnete Jauron, Garett Gorlitsky, Jim Hirt, Tuan Phung, Paul Ramirez, Daniel Torres, Tawnya Austin, Cynthia Bentley, Angel Breault, Dolly Daswani, Patricia Fusco, Andrea Mintz, Michelle Moreno, Steve Oetting, Sonia Ramos, Natalie Rodriguez, and Nona Seaman.

In San Diego, recipients of the Award for Excellence as a Team included members of the Armed Prohibited Persons Systems (APPS), Department of Labor Standards Enforcement.

In San Diego and San Francisco, the Award for Excellence as a Team was awarded to contributed to the High Speed Rail Extraordinary Writ, Civil Law team, including Ross Moody, Sharon O’Grady, Tamar Pachter, Paul Stein, Catherine Brown, Constance LeLouis, Stephanie Zook.

In Sacramento and San Francisco, the PALCO Trial, Public Rights team also received an Award for Excellence as a Team, including members Denise Hoffman, Oda Killian, Megan Sato, Regina Tochterman, Lucinda Witte, Rick Acker, Cory Alcantara, Clarence Binninger, Matthew Bullock, Robert Byrne, Michael Edson, Nicole Gordon,  Daniel Harris, Esther La, William Moser, Michael Neville, Myung (Mo) Park, Barbara Spiegel, Julian Standen, and Rebecca Torres.

In San Francisco, the Award for Excellence as a Team was given to the DNA Innovation Team-Richmond Lab, DLE, members Margaret Aceves, Martin Buoncristiani, Mavis Date-Chong, Bill Hudlow, Sonja Klein, Steven Myers, Matt Piucci, Josh Sehhat, Gary Sims, Mark Timken, James Weigand, and Korie Faber.

Photos of the AG Awards recipients are available at http://oag.ca.gov/news/photo-gallery.