#WeekInJustice: Week 217
We had a lot of positive things happen this week at PCAO, it’s a welcomed a break as our trial teams work diligently on the tough days we face in court, handling some of the most heart-wrenching cases. Earlier this week, our very own Assistant Chief Civil Deputy Dan Jurkowitz won the Outstanding In-House Counsel of the Year Award from the Arizona State Bar Convention in Chandler. The award recognizes the attributes of being a respected and innovative leader who has excellent business acumen, leadership, and integrity.
And the awards kept coming. Our Criminal Division was also in Chandler this week to enhance their skills at the 2025 Arizona Prosecuting Attorneys’ Advisory Council (APAAC) conference. They had breakout sessions on victim advocacy, trial skills, ethics, trafficking, and other important elements of the important work that they do every day. There was a total of 6 award nominees from our office this year including, Peter Goodman, Lacee Collins, Mark Hotchkiss, Hayley Weigold, Ryan Klee, and Robin Schwartz. Robin won the 2025 Prosecutor Lifetime Achievement Award and Lacee won the 2025 David R. White Excellence in Victim Advocacy Award. More to come next week.
We welcomed a new member to the PCAO family, Jacob. The two-year-old yellow Labrador Retriever is joining Baja and Arrow on our courthouse dog team, completing the trio of Labrador colors: chocolate, black and yellow. Jacob recently arrived at “The People’s Office” after training with the wonderful team at Dogs for Better Lives in Oregon. His education started with puppy raisers from Guide Dogs for the Blind in Texas. Jacob’s PCAO handler, Kristin Carter, Civil Division Deputy County Attorneys Cindy Nguyen and Bobby Yu, along with PCAO’s Victim Services Division, worked hard to get all the paperwork across the finish line to complete the process of bringing Jacob into the office.
Rachel Stiles and Peter Raptis sat down for an interview with Kenny Darr from KGUN 9 on the Jana Giron texting case. Rachel talked about the importance of not driving and texting and the unique challenges in the case. She also shared a lot of educational information about the impact that distracted driving can have on the road. We should see that story in the coming days.
Lastly, our Civil Division Deputy County Attorney Krystal De La Ossa worked on a series of tax cases that saved Pima County taxpayers over $5.2 million dollars!
That’s all we have for now; our June monthly newsletter is currently in production, and we look forward to sharing all of the wonderful work we do here at the People’s Office with you soon.
Be well,
Shawndrea
