Department of Public Safety settlement with slain officer's family exceeds $500K

The state Department of Public Safety paid $523,520 to the children, estranged wife and fiancée of a State Police officer who was killed in 2021 by a known drug trafficker in southern New Mexico.

The settlement was reached in September, according to court records, with $45,867 going to each of Darian Jarrott’s four children, $150,137 going to estranged wife Gabriella Jarrott and more than $8,333 to fiancée Alycia Jarrott.

The Bregman Law Firm, which represented the wrongful death estate of Officer Jarrott, received $181,579 from the settlement.

On Feb. 4, 2021, 28-year-old Jarrott was helping federal Homeland Security Investigations apprehend Omar Cueva when he pulled over the 39-year-old man on Interstate 10 near Deming. Within minutes, Cueva had fatally shot Jarrott with an assault rifle and left the officer’s body on the side of the road. Cueva then led authorities on a lengthy pursuit to Las Cruces, where he was killed in a gunfight that also injured a Las Cruces police officer.

Jarrott was the first New Mexico State Police officer to be shot and killed in the line of duty in more than 30 years.

Multiple lawsuits were filed against the New Mexico Department of Public Safety and the U.S. government, alleging that HSI agents and Jarrott’s State Police supervisor were negligent and did not warn the officer of Cueva’s dangerousness beforehand.

“New Mexico State Police has, independently from the settlement of this case, undertaken a thorough review of its policies and practices, and issued new directives, policies and procedures that will ameliorate the potential for similar events occurring,” according to the settlement agreement filed in July.

A State Police investigation found HSI agents planned to arrest Cueva after he trafficked drugs to an undercover agent in Deming and, in the hopes of protecting their informant’s identity, asked for State Police assistance in detaining Cueva.

As a result, according to the investigation, Jarrott was told by State Police Sgt. Mark Madrid to be on the lookout for Cueva’s truck on I-10 and — if he saw it — to pull over Cueva.

The lawsuit against HSI was dismissed in July after a federal judge ruled that the government had sovereign immunity in the officer’s death.

The state and federal lawsuits were initially filed by Sam Bregman but were handed off to other attorneys when Bregman became the 2nd Judicial District Attorney.