Elizabeth Skala, a Philadelphia police officer who gave Nizah Morris a “courtesy ride” shortly before her fatal head injury, is scheduled to testify next week at an unrelated DUI trial.
Richard Patterson stands accused of driving while under the influence of alcohol when he allegedly sideswiped another vehicle in Center City in May 2002.
Skala was the responding officer and arrested Patterson on suspicion of DUI, according to court records. Patterson failed to show up for a subsequent court proceeding, and a bench warrant was issued, though it wasn’t served.
Twelve years later, in July 2012, Patterson attended a social event in South Philadelphia that became disorderly.
Police were summoned, and after Patterson presented proof of his identity, he was arrested due to the pending DUI charge.
His municipal court trial is scheduled for 10 a.m. Nov. 3 in Courtroom 903 of the Criminal Justice Center, 1301 Filbert St.
Skala has been prepared to testify for several months, but Patterson’s trial has been postponed three times, according to court records.
In December 2002, seven months after Skala arrested Patterson, she was dispatched to investigate Morris outside a Center City bar, where Morris was extremely inebriated.
Skala said she agreed to take Morris to 15th and Walnut streets, where she thought Morris lived. Within minutes, Morris was found a block away with a fatal head injury.
Skala denied any culpability in Morris’ homicide, but a 2013 report by the city’s Police Advisory Commission raised multiple questions about her credibility.
The PAC report noted that bystanders helped Morris into Skala’s vehicle because she couldn’t stand or walk unassisted. Yet Skala testified that nobody was at the scene except her and Morris, and that Morris could enter and exit her vehicle without assistance.
Morris died two days after the courtesy ride, and her homicide remains unsolved.
Skala was eventually removed from street patrol after the Morris incident, and reportedly works in the police commissioner’s office.
Two male officers also responded to Morris on the morning of her head injury, Kenneth Novak and Thomas Berry. Questions about their credibility also have been raised, partly because their Morris paperwork was based on the supposition that no one summoned medics for Morris prior to her head injury — which wasn’t true.
Novak and Berry also haven’t given a cogent explanation for why a prompt investigation of the assault on Morris wasn’t undertaken.
Both officers are assigned to street-patrol duties, a police spokesperson said.
Patterson remains free after posting $5,000 bail. Efforts to resolve the matter without a trial have been unsuccessful, according to court records.
If Patterson isn’t satisfied with the outcome of his municipal court trial, he’s permitted to appeal in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court.
Advocates for Morris want a state probe of her homicide. But Attorney General Kathleen G. Kane hasn’t yet agreed to review the case.