U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella, Jr., Announces New Leadership for the Office’s Long Island Division and Criminal Section

Joseph Nocella, Jr., United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, announced today the appointment of Catherine Mirabile as Chief of the Long Island Division and Chief of the Criminal Section of the Long Island Division. Additionally, Megan Farrell has been appointed as a Deputy Chief of the Long Island Criminal Section, joining current Deputy Chiefs Justina Geraci and Michael Maffei.

Catherine Mirabile

Ms. Mirabile joined the Office in 2002 and originally served in the Civil Division, including as Chief of the Employment Practice and as an Acting Deputy Chief of the Civil Division. Since 2012, she has served in the Criminal Division's General Crimes (GC), Public Integrity, and Long Island Criminal Sections (LI). Among other supervisory roles, she was Deputy Chief of LI and Senior Litigation Counsel in the Criminal Division. Ms. Mirabile is a graduate of Suffolk University Law School and received her B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania. After law school, she served as an Assistant Corporation Counsel in the New York City Law Department.

During her time in the Office, Ms. Mirabile has led the investigation and prosecution of several significant public corruption cases, including: a Nassau County Executive; a leader of the Suffolk County Conservative Party who was also a Suffolk County Sheriff's Office Correction Officer; a former New York City Police Department officer charged with plotting the murder for hire of her estranged husband and her boyfriend's daughter; and a criminal defense attorney who defrauded a minor estate beneficiary of an inheritance.

Ms. Mirabile has also prosecuted several significant fraud cases, including: a case involving a defendant who was convicted at trial of healthcare fraud, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft in a scheme that defrauded insurance companies of more than $700 million and resulted in one of the largest restitution and forfeiture orders in a healthcare fraud case nationwide; and a prosecution in which the defendants engaged in a scheme to induce victims to invest in a series of web-based companies that purportedly traded in Bitcoin.

Ms. Mirabile is also a member of the team that has prosecuted several other significant cases on Long Island, including: a case involving violent sex trafficking out of the Sayville Motor Lodge; and a case against a drug dealer who distributed heroin laced with fentanyl that caused the death of a young Long Island man.

Megan Farrell

Ms. Farrell joined the Office in February 2018 and has served in GC, LI, and the Human Trafficking and Civil Rights (HTCR) Section. Ms. Farrell most recently served as Deputy Chief of HTCR and previously served as an Acting Deputy Chief in GC and the Organized Crimes and Gangs Section. From 2021 to 2025, she was a Project Safe Child Coordinator and developed outreach programs for middle-school students, speaking to thousands of children and parents about internet safety. Ms. Farrell graduated from Boston College and received her J.D. from St. John's University School of Law. Following law school, Ms. Farrell was a Public Fellow, serving as a misdemeanor Assistant District Attorney at the King's County District Attorney's Office for one year. From 2010 until 2018, Ms. Farrell was an associate at Clifford Chance US LLP.

During her time in the U.S. Attorney's Office, Ms. Farrell has prosecuted significant organized crime, gang, sex trafficking, and child exploitation cases. Ms. Farrell was part of a team that secured the convictions of two MS-13 defendants to racketeering and other charges in connection with eight murders. Ms. Farrell was also a member of the team that secured the convictions of three high-ranking MS-13 gang members on racketeering charges in connection with nine murders. In another case, Ms. Farrell was part of the team that secured a sentence of 50 years after the defendant, an MS-13 gang associate, was convicted in April 2022, following a four-week trial, of racketeering, including predicate acts of murder, conspiracy to murder rival gang members, and obstruction of justice and murder in aid-of racketeering, in connection with luring four young men to their violent deaths by more than a dozen gang members and associates in a park in 2017. Additionally, Ms. Farrell is leading the team currently prosecuting seven MS-13 members, including two national leaders, charged with two murders committed on Long Island. Ms. Farrell secured the conviction of a Bloods gang member who was sentenced to 23 years in prison for sex trafficking of minors, and she led the trial team that secured a defendant's conviction for sex trafficking of two victims. Ms. Farrell is a member of the team currently prosecuting the former CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch and two other individuals charged with sex trafficking and interstate prostitution.