Sheriff changes mind, will examine Salazar boxes

Yesterday, Sheriff Lee Baca was refusing to let the L.A. Times see eight boxes of documents on the killing of Ruben Salazar, the former Times columnist who was the news director at KMEX when he was killed by a sheriff's tear-gas projectile fired into a bar during East L.A. protests in 1970. Baca decided on his own that the documents were not public records, and said he didn't have the staff to look more closely at the boxes. Fast forward to today: the Times published a story about Baca's refusal, the Board of Supervisors directed county lawyers to determine if the records should be public, and now Baca has said he will have his officials look at the boxes and determine what can should be released.

Baca spokesman Steve Whitmore said the sheriff changed his mind because he wants to have all the facts before deciding whether any of the eight boxes of records will be released.