Pat Mador, assistant district attorney for Maine’s District Three, has won this year’s National Traffic Safety Award for Prosecutors from the National Association of Prosecutor Coordinators. District Three covers Androscoggin, Franklin and Oxford counties.

In her letter nominating Mador, Deputy District Attorney Kate Bozeman wrote, called Mador “an institution among this profession” who’s been a prosecutor for more than 30 years.

“Pat epitomizes what it means to be a public servant dedicated to upholding the law and working hard for her community. She is an encyclopedia of knowledge — ask her a question about case law or a difficult fact pattern and not only will she provide a helpful and thoughtful answer, she will usually give you a stack of case law that supports your argument five minutes later (half of which she probably argued to the Maine Supreme Court herself),” Bozeman wrote.

Mador “handles all of the OUI cases and serious vehicular crashes/manslaughters for our entire county, and has single-handedly raised the bar on these prosecutions and sentences,” Bozeman noted. “Pat is dedicated, hard-working, and has made a huge impact on the communities and people she has worked with from coworkers, to law enforcement, to victims and the community at large.”