In the next several weeks, the city’s Police Advisory Commission is expected to issue its final report on the Nizah Morris incident.
Morris was a transgender woman found with a fatal head wound shortly after she received a courtesy ride from Philadelphia police in 2002.
Her death was ruled a homicide on Dec. 25, 2002, but the case remains unsolved.
While the PAC is not expected to solve the homicide, the hope is that the Morris report will address lingering concerns about missing and redacted evidence, questionable police paperwork and conflicts between witness and police testimony.
As someone who has followed the case for nine years, here’s my wish list for positive outcomes.
A redaction-free evidentiary policy
Last June, the PAC unanimously agreed to create a comprehensive redaction policy in conjunction with the police and District Attorney’s office, which has yet to be done. The PAC agreed to do this after receiving several pieces of redacted evidence in the Morris case.
Examples of redacted evidence include the official Morris police report, a dispatch record related to the incident and search-warrant records for the Morris 911 tapes.
Neither the police nor the D.A.’s office has explained why the PAC received that evidence in a redacted format.
Until some type of explanation is forthcoming, it seems doubtful that the PAC can implement a meaningful redaction policy — and ensure the avoidance of similar redactions in the future.
Accountability for missing evidence
In 2003, the city Law Department created a list of Morris evidence for a wrongful-death lawsuit filed by Morris’ family. The suit was settled out of court for $250,000, before evidence on the list was released as part of the discovery phase of litigation.
Items on the list that have been lost or withheld include five cassette tapes of Morris 911 recordings, six video-surveillance tapes from businesses near the crime scene, six search warrants for evidence such as cell-phone records, a complete set of dispatch records related to the case and interviews with two city medics who responded to Morris after her head injury.
If the police and/or D.A’s office have any of this evidence — or know of its whereabouts — they should share the information promptly.
This reporter provided the PAC with some Morris evidence that local authorities apparently lost, including more than a hundred 911 transmissions and several phone messages left on Morris’ answering machine at the time of her death.
But it’s not the place of a reporter to supply evidence to the PAC.
The public has a right to know if local officials lost key Morris evidence, and whether corrective action has been taken to prevent similar losses in the future.
Civilian and police testimony conflicts
Conflicts between the testimony of civilian witnesses and police have plagued the Morris case from the beginning.
During the early-morning hours of Dec. 22, 2002, Morris was staggering outside Key West Bar at Juniper and Chancellor streets, severely intoxicated.
Someone placed a 911 call on her behalf, medics were summoned and Officers Elizabeth Skala and Kenneth Novak were dispatched to investigate.
The official police story is that Skala got there first, decided that Morris didn’t need medical help, and agreed to transport her to 15th and Walnut streets, where Skala thought Morris lived.
According to Skala, nobody else was at Juniper and Chancellor — just her and Morris.
Skala said Morris walked into her cruiser on her own power, and exited at 15th and Walnut on her own power.
Within minutes of the drop-off, Morris was discovered by passing motorists at 16th and Walnut with a fatal head wound.
A major problem with Skala’s story is that two women testified under oath to the PAC that Morris couldn’t stand or walk. She had to be helped into Skala’s cruiser with much difficulty, they testified.
Their testimony is corroborated by medical evidence that Morris’ blood-alcohol level was 0.342 — a level of intoxication that would make it difficult for anyone to stand or walk.
Additionally, the person who called 911 can be heard saying that Morris couldn’t stand or walk.
Local authorities have maintained over the years that there’s no conclusive evidence that Skala gave false testimony, but there’s also no indication that local authorities ever listened to the 911 tape.
At the very least, the PAC should recommend that local authorities revisit the case, and listen to the tape. This might better inform the investigation and challenge the assertion that she was intoxicated but ambulatory.
Officers’ paperwork
The paperwork handed in by three officers who responded to Morris that morning is another troublesome aspect of the case.
The patrol logs of Novak and Skala state that Morris was a “hospital case” at Juniper and Chancellor.
Their logs directly contradict their later statements that Morris wasn’t a “hospital case” at that location but, instead, she was a drunk person who needed a ride home.
On the surface, the logs appear to be falsified. But there may be an explanation that clears the officers of any suspicion. If so, it should be shared with the public.
Officer Thomas Berry, who responded to Morris at 16th and Walnut, testified that he wrote a report about the Morris incident at that location.
But Berry’s unredacted report — released to the PAC last year — indicates that he wrote it after going to Jefferson University Hospital and coordinating his report with the logs of Skala and Novak.
The end result was paperwork representing Morris as a moving-target “hospital case” from Juniper and Chancellor to 16th and Walnut to Jefferson.
There is no mention anywhere in the paperwork about the courtesy ride, nor the fractured skull that Morris sustained, nor the possibility that she was a crime victim.
Advocates for Morris have long been concerned that police tried to cover up the ride and subsequent crime that morning, for whatever reason.
PAC members would render a valuable service if they can elicit an explanation of the paperwork — something an earlier PAC was unable to do.
Series of coincidences
A series of coincidences allegedly led to Morris’ death: Skala’s mistaken belief that Morris lived at 15th and Walnut; a killer lurking in the area at the ride’s completion; and the inability of Novak to respond promptly to Key West because he was several blocks away.
Records maintained by the city’s Office of Fleet Management state that Novak finished getting gas at Third and Spring Garden streets at 3:07 a.m., about three minutes prior to accepting the Key West dispatch.
“I received a radio call [to go to Key West] as I was getting fueled at Third and Spring Garden streets,” Novak told the PAC, in 2005. “I proceeded to go to that location. While en route, I heard Officer Skala come over the radio and resume both myself and rescue. I never made it to Juniper and Chancellor streets.”
However, Novak’s patrol log indicates he arrived at Juniper and Chancellor at 3:15 a.m., and that a “hospital case” was there.
And Novak’s log makes no mention of his trip to Third and Spring Garden to get gas.
It’s an unusual and troubling way for an officer to maintain a patrol log: recording an activity that didn’t happen, and failing to record an activity that did.
It’s important for police dispatchers to know the whereabouts of officers at all times, so they can be deployed effectively. But an earlier PAC never asked Novak whether he told a dispatcher he was going to Third and Spring Garden for gas.
Likewise, it’s important for police to maintain accurate paperwork, so they can be held accountable.
Local authorities should release all the information they have about Novak’s movements and communications that morning, for a fuller understanding of what went wrong in the Morris case.
Revisit the non-disclosure agreement
Last year, the PAC agreed to a limited non-disclosure agreement with the D.A., preventing it from releasing photocopies of Morris documents that it received from the D.A.’s office.
However, the PAC retained the right to cite, quote from and publish information from the documents.
The D.A.’s office pushed for a non-disclosure agreement on the basis that it would help protect the integrity of its Morris probe.
At this point, the integrity of the D.A.’s Morris probe is questionable because so much evidence appears to have been lost or destroyed.
The PAC entered into the limited agreement in good faith after being told by D.A. Seth Williams that the office was conducting a thorough Morris probe.
If the D.A.’s office doesn’t have basic evidence such as the 911 tapes, how could its probe be considered thorough?
Alternately, if the D.A.’s office is withholding that evidence from the PAC, then the agreement was made in bad faith.
If the D.A.’s office cannot explain the glaring gaps in its Morris investigative file, the PAC should revisit the agreement and release all of its Morris records so that a proper investigation can move forward.
Referral of case to appropriate agency
Local authorities have had nine years to explain the missing evidence, redacted evidence, conflicts between civilian and police testimony and questionable police paperwork in the Morris case.
If they continue to rebuff questions about these serious matters, then perhaps it’s time for another law-enforcement agency to review the case.
There are existing laws and precedents that enable state or federal authorities to step in when local authorities appear unwilling or unable to investigate a crime.
For example, earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Justice opened a probe into numerous sexual-assault cases in Missoula, Mont., after concerns were expressed that local authorities weren’t handling the investigation properly.
Kathleen R. Padilla, a local LGBT activist, wants similar federal intervention in the Morris case.
She said several transgender women have been killed in Philadelphia over the past nine years, and their homicides remain unsolved.
“In the Morris homicide, there’s a stupendously long train of procedural errors, bad faith, lost records and a civil settlement on the part of the city,” Padilla said. “It’s hard to see how the additional resources of the Justice Department wouldn’t help allay community concerns over an inadequate investigation — or outright covering-up by the authorities.”
Tim Cwiek can be reached at [email protected].