Sheriff Urged to Release Records on Reporter's 1970 Death
Tuesday, Aug 10, 2010 | Updated 6:45 PM PDT
U.S. Postal Service stamp
The U.S. Postal Service in 2008 issued a stamp honoring Los Angeles Times journalist Ruben Salazar.
A county supervisor pressed Tuesday for disclosure of sheriff's documents about the 1970 death of a journalist Ruben Salazar hit in the head with tear-gas round.
Ruben Salazar, a Los Angeles Times columnist and news director for Spanish language KMEX-TV, was shot in East Los Angeles while covering the National Chicano Moratorium, an anti-Vietnam War rally broken up by sheriff's deputies.
``The documents and records surrounding Ruben's death are of enormous historical significance to researchers, scholars, the public at large, and especially the Mexican-American community,'' Supervisor Gloria Molina said.
Sheriff Lee Baca has refused to make the documents public.
Molina asked lawyers for the county to write a report, due next Tuesday, on legal issues about making the documents public. She also wanted to know what it might cost the sheriff's department to make the documents public.
In March, the Los Angeles Times filed a request for the documents under the California Public Records Act, the state version of the federal Freedom of Information Act.
But Baca told The Times that, while he had ``nothing to hide,'' the release could set a bad legal precedent regarding confidential law enforcement records and that he didn't have the staffing to dig through eight boxes of files to decide what could be released.
``It's extraordinarily labor intensive,'' he said.
The Times said it got records regarding Salazar from the FBI and Los Angeles Police Department. Those files showed that authorities monitored the newsman's activities as a foreign correspondent in Vietnam and Latin America, and his work on police brutality and civil unrest in the Mexican-American community.
Salazar was sitting in the Silver Dollar bar, taking a break, when he was hit in the head by the tear-gas canister. He died at the scene.
``Salazar's death is a symbol of a time when there was deep distrust between the Mexican-American community, particularly in East Los Angeles, and the Sheriff's Department,'' said Molina. ``This wound will never fully heal until details surrounding Ruben Salazar's death come to light.''
