The state Office of Open Records this week denied PGN’s request for a public hearing in its appeal for key records in the Nizah Morris case.
The paper wants the agency to direct the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office to release computer-assisted dispatch records relating to the Morris case. PGN requested a public hearing to ensure careful scrutiny of the facts, prior to rendering a decision.
Instead, the open-records agency said it will decide the appeal on written submissions. But it agreed to set new deadlines, to ensure PGN can respond to a submission the D.A.’s Office is expected to have filed by Aug. 21, the day after this PGN edition went to press.
The paper will have until 5 p.m. Aug. 26 to respond to the D.A.’s submission. A final determination by the agency will be issued on or before Oct. 10, the agency said.
The paper seeks all dispatch records in the D.A.’s possession pertaining to a vehicle stop initiated by Officer Elizabeth Skala during the early-morning hours of Dec. 22, 2002.
Shortly before the vehicle stop, Skala gave Morris a courtesy ride in Center City. Minutes after the ride, the transwoman was found with blunt-force trauma to her head.
Skala’s unrelated vehicle stop took place near 13th and Market streets, while she was still assigned to handle Morris, who was extremely inebriated.
It’s believed that dispatch records for the vehicle stop could help explain why Morris’ initial police-tracking numbers were voided at the 911 call center. Voiding those tracking numbers cleared the way for responding officers to file paperwork that didn’t mention the courtesy ride, nor the subsequent assault.
Despite repeated questioning by members of the public, local authorities have never explained why the tracking numbers were voided.
The state’s open-records agency rarely holds public hearings, said Melissa B. Melewsky, medial law counsel for the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association.
“The relatively small staff and large case load of the [agency] make it difficult for them to hold hearings,” Melewsky said. “But hearings can be a useful tool for litigants who have complex cases where testimony given under oath would be helpful. There’s really no substitute for cross-examining a witness, and the affidavit process leaves much to be desired from a litigation standpoint. It’s also helpful for a higher court — since a full record of the hearing becomes part of the official record that would be reviewed in the event of an appeal.”
Ensuring that PGN has an opportunity to respond to the D.A.’s submission was a positive step on the part of the agency, Melewsky added.
“Granting the requester a chance to respond can make up for some of what lacks in a proceeding where there’s no hearing,” she noted. “Ultimately, it’s in the public interest to develop as good a record as possible in every case.”
The D.A.’s Office has issued conflicting statements about possessing dispatch records relating to the Morris case.
In a Nov. 5 email, the D.A.’s Office stated that “after a reasonable search, the District Attorney’s Office is not in possession of any CAD records related to the death of Nizah Morris.”
In a July 29 letter, the D.A.’s Office stated that it has a dispatch “report.”
But the office didn’t release the “report,” it didn’t say whether the “report” pertains to Skala’s vehicle stop and it didn’t supply an attestation under penalty of perjury that it has no additional records for the vehicle stop.
The Morris homicide remains unsolved. Last year, the city’s Police Advisory Commission recommended state and federal probes of the case, citing an “appalling” local investigation.
Shortly after the PAC’s recommendation, Morris advocates formed the Justice for Nizah committee, which seeks a probe by state Attorney General Kathleen G. Kane.
The next J4N meeting will be held 6 p.m. Oct. 27 at the William Way LGBT Community Center, 1315 Spruce St.