The Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office refuses to confirm or deny whether it has a police log in the Nizah Morris case, even though such logs are considered public records under state law.
Morris was a transgender woman who was found with a fatal head wound shortly after she received a courtesy ride from Philadelphia Police during the pre-dawn hours of Dec. 22, 2002.
Police say Morris received the ride to 15th and Walnut streets by Officer Elizabeth Skala, who was dispatched to investigate Morris outside a nearby LGBT bar — where Morris was severely inebriated and having trouble standing.
Morris died two days later, from complications of a fractured skull.
The homicide remains unsolved.
The log in question pertains to a vehicle stop initiated by Skala while she was still assigned to the Morris dispatch.
A ticket issued by Skala during the vehicle stop indicates that it began at 3:30 a.m., while Skala was still assigned to the Morris dispatch.
Police have never explained why the Morris dispatch was preempted by a vehicle stop, then placed on hold for 30 minutes before Skala closed it as “unfounded.”
In 2006, when Skala was asked why her Morris assignment was preempted by a vehicle stop, she replied: “I have no idea.”
The police department routinely releases logs such as the one pertaining to Skala’s vehicle stop but says it no longer has it.
The city’s 911 call center generates and stores the logs electronically for five years.
According to a letter faxed to PGN, the DA’s position is that if it has the vehicle-stop log, it would be in an investigative file and unavailable to the public.
Tasha Jamerson, a spokesperson for DA Seth Williams, had no additional comment about the log.
It’s believed the DA’s office obtained a copy of the log in April 2003, when it obtained similar evidence from the police during its Morris investigation.
Melissa B. Melewsky, media law counsel for the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association, said the vehicle-stop log is a public record unless the DA’s office can prove otherwise.
“The state’s Right-to-Know law expressly provides public access to 911 time-response logs,” Melewsky told PGN. “The law puts the burden on the agency to prove why the record isn’t public. I don’t believe the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office has met that burden by refusing to say whether or not they have the record.”
She questioned how the DA’s office could prove the log isn’t a public record when it won’t confirm or deny its existence.
“Public agencies shouldn’t be able to meet their burden of proof by speaking in the hypothetical or refusing to confirm that a requested record exists,” Melewsky continued. “They have to provide evidence to meet their burden. They can’t just say, ‘We might have it, and maybe it would hurt our investigation to release it.’ Speaking in mights and maybes shouldn’t be enough to deny access to an otherwise public record.”
She also said it’s in the public interest for the log to be released, if it exists.
“We’re talking about a government agency that’s investigated a high-profile death in the LGBT community,” Melewsky said. “This [log] is a record that could shed an enormous amount of light on the situation. This record, which is presumptively public, could help accomplish that.”
She went on to say the DA’s position concerning the log could set a bad precedent
“If we allow agencies to rely on the criminal-investigation exemption to deny access to 911 time-response logs, we’ll never get access to them,” she continued. “The state legislature recognized that public access to 911 time-response logs is critical for public accountability and to know whether your emergency responders are doing their job.”
The DA’s refusal to account for the log calls into question whether the Police Advisory Commission, which has investigated the incident for nearly 10 years, can issue an informed report about the case, which is expected in the coming months.
The PAC is trying to determine whether police violated any departmental regulations while handling the Morris incident.
Several years ago, the PAC received from police a redacted version of the vehicle-stop log, which is missing about 10 lines of entries — that could clarify the location of the stop, its timing and the priority level it was given by the 911 call center.
Some police records place the stop at 13th and Market streets, while others place it two blocks north, at 13th and Filbert streets.
At last week’s PAC meeting, commissioners expressed concern about several pieces of evidence in the Morris case that appear to be redacted, including the vehicle-stop log.
“This is like something you’d find in communist Russia, when they would erase people from photographs,” said Chuck Volz, an openly gay commissioner.
Kathleen R. Padilla, a local transgender activist, said transparency in the Morris case holds the potential of clearing police of any undue suspicion in the homicide.
“The [transgender] community would be pleased if the DA’s Office were half as successful in solving our murders as it is in obfuscating the existence of public information,” Padilla said.
A public record shouldn’t be rendered nonpublic simply because an agency places it in a criminal file, she added.
“That’s an invitation for abuse.”