Sara Varela, Esq.
Chief Deputy District Attorney
Sara Varela is the Chief Deputy District Attorney and heads up the office’s Major Crimes Unit, where she is responsible for overseeing the investigation and prosecution of all homicide cases. Before her appointment to the Major Crimes Unit, Varela was deputy of the Special Victims Unit for five years. She was the lead prosecutor on all rape, child sexual assault, physical abuse, child pornography, and human-trafficking cases.
Her duties also included directing the Lackawanna County Multidisciplinary Team response to child sexual assault and physical abuse cases.
Since joining the office in 2017, Varela tried more than 30 cases to verdict, including charges of murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, kidnapping, rape of a child, sexual assault, burglary, child endangerment, and production of child pornography.
Previously, she served as an Assistant State Attorney for the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office in Florida for seven years, where she was a member of the Organized Crime Unit and prosecuted international money-laundering and narcotics-trafficking organizations. Before moving back to Lackawanna County, she worked at a prominent South Florida law firm, where she served as legal counsel to cities and police departments throughout Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Monroe counties. Immediately prior to joining the DA’s Office, she served as a staff attorney at the Barbara J. Hart Justice Center, representing survivors of domestic violence in family law and immigration matters.
Varela is a graduate of Abington Heights High School, Villanova University, and the Temple University Beasley School of Law.