The District Attorney’s office this week declined to provide records related to the Nizah Morris incident to the Police Advisory Commission, but invited PAC members to review the materials onsite if they agree not to publicly disclose what they see.
Morris was a transgender woman found unconscious on a Center City street, bleeding profusely from the head — shortly after receiving a courtesy ride from Philadelphia police.
She died two days later, on Dec. 24, 2002, from complications due to a fractured skull.
The PAC has 14 new commissioners, and they’re trying to determine whether any departmental regulations were violated in the Morris incident.
In January, they asked the DA for “any and all 911 tapes, transcripts or other documents or materials that relate in any way to the matter of Nizah Morris,” along with an itemized list of all documents and other materials previously produced to the PAC by the D.A.’s office, and a privilege log describing any materials being withheld and the reason.
But on March 21, Todd M. Mosser, the D.A.’s chief of litigation, sent a letter to the PAC, denying the request. Mosser said that releasing additional Morris records would jeopardize an ongoing homicide investigation and interfere with the internal operations of the D.A.’s office.
Tasha Jamerson, a spokesperson for District Attorney R. Seth Williams, issued a statement the following day, elaborating on the D.A.’s position.
“The District Attorney’s Office has made substantial efforts to assist the PAC in the Nizah Morris matter, to the unprecedented extent of allowing PAC members to actually view our files. As has been stated numerous times, this is an open murder case and the request to physically hand over the files would jeopardize the integrity of this investigation.”
Members of the PAC received Mosser’s letter minutes before convening a community meeting at the Cambria Recreational Center in North Philadelphia. They said they needed more time to review it before deciding on their next move.
A decision on whether to subpoena the D.A.’s Morris records is expected at the PAC’s next meeting, 6 p.m. April 18 at Community College of Philadelphia.
Police officers Thomas Berry, Kenneth Novak and Elizabeth Skala responded to Morris at various times throughout the early morning of Dec. 22, 2002 — both before and after Morris’ injury.
In the PAC’s 2007 report, the officers were cleared of any responsibility for Morris’ death.
But the report recommended additional training for Skala — who gave the courtesy ride — concerning the proper handling of people who need to go to a hospital.
Neither former Police Commissioner Sylvester M. Johnson nor current Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey responded to the report, and it’s unknown if Skala has ever received the recommended training.
In 2008, the PAC reopened the case after learning that the police department’s Morris homicide file had been missing for several years.
In April 2009, a PAC contingent viewed the Morris records at the D.A.’s office, after then-D.A. Lynne Abraham refused to comply with a PAC subpoena for the records.
According to sources, the PAC contingent viewed information about cell-phone conversations related to the incident, including an alleged cell-phone conversation between Skala and her then supervisor, Sgt. Michael Dougherty.
However, the contingent wasn’t permitted to photocopy any of the records it viewed, and was bound by a non-disclosure agreement.
Dougherty didn’t testify during the four days of PAC hearings on the Morris matter, nor was he interviewed by the Police Department’s Internal Affairs Division, which also investigated the incident.
Police said the Morris homicide file recently was found in a city Archives Unit intake box. However, several key items appear to be missing from the file, including 911 tapes related to the incident.
Officers’ paperwork
The new PAC members also are reviewing the police report written by Berry on the morning of Morris’ injury. In 2006, he testified that he wrote the report at 16th and Walnut streets, while waiting for medics to transport Morris to Jefferson University Hospital.
However, another version of Berry’s report was included in the recently discovered homicide file. That version indicates that Berry wrote the report a few hours later, after meeting with Skala and Novak at Jefferson Hospital.
Questions remain about the timing of Berry’s report, and whether the officers prepared their patrol logs jointly at the hospital or separately at different times that morning.
When pieced together, the officers’ paperwork depicts Morris as a “hospital case” who initially was “DK [drunk] only,” but then received a “cut on head” and needed to go to the hospital.
There is no mention in any of the officers’ paperwork that Morris was a crime victim, nor that she was inside a police vehicle shortly before her fatal head wound.
Tim Cwiek can be reached at [email protected].