Interior Department hires former top cop to review jail deaths on his watch

Darren Cruzan was teary-eyed when he delivered his retirement speech to family and colleagues at a gathering in Washington, D.C., last May. He was ending a 26-year career in federal law enforcement — more than half with the Interior Department — and was proud of his tenure as an administrator.

"If I were to go back and rewrite my entire life and career from beginning to now, I might change a few punctuation marks," he said at the time. "But the things that really mattered could have hardly worked out to be better. I really do believe greater things are still to come."

In fact, more was to come.

Less than two months after retiring, Cruzan was back on the federal payroll as a private contractor. He was hired by the very agency for whom he worked to review 16 in-custody deaths at tribal detention centers. At least two of them–and as many as 11 happened on Cruzan's watch, according to