Earlier this month, the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office confirmed that it has documents pertaining to the Nizah Morris case that were generated by police.
The confirmation is significant, because concerns have been expressed that such documentation was destroyed or misplaced. However, the D.A.’s Office hasn’t divulged the full contents of its police-generated Morris file.
Even the city’s Police Advisory Commission — which investigated the Morris case intermittently for 10 years — has never received from the D.A.’s Office an exhaustive list of its police-generated Morris documents.
As a result, numerous 911 transmissions relating to the Morris case remain unaccounted for, though it’s possible the D.A.’s Office has them.
Morris was a transgender woman who sustained a fatal head injury shortly after entering a police vehicle for a Center City “courtesy ride.” Her 2002 homicide remains unsolved, and advocates want a state probe.
A complete set of 911 transmissions could help explain why Morris wasn’t promptly transported to a hospital, why her head injury wasn’t promptly investigated, why her initial police-tracking numbers were voided, why responding officers didn’t document the “courtesy ride” and subsequent assault, and why an officer speculated about Morris’ transgender status on a police report.
A 2003 affidavit of probable cause for a search warrant indicates that local authorities obtained comprehensive 911 transmissions pertaining to the Morris incident.
In 2011, the PAC subpoenaed the D.A.’s Office for all of its Morris records, including all Morris 911 transmissions in its possession.
In response, the D.A.’s Office turned over 911 transmissions that were transcribed by PGN. But those transcripts were made from partial 911 tapes released shortly after Morris was killed.
The transcripts are missing key entries during the time periods when Morris sustained her head injury, when she lay dying in the street and when police were summoned to Jefferson University Hospital — where medical personnel believed Morris was an assault victim.
In November 2011, PAC members also were given numerous other documents in the D.A.’s Morris files, none of which was generated by police.
PAC members sent follow-up emails to the D.A.’s Office, asking if the agency was certain it didn’t have comprehensive 911 transmissions from the Morris incident.
In January 2012, the D.A.’s Office emailed a terse reply.
“We have ripped the entire file apart, yet again, and have found no 911 transcripts,” the e-mail stated. “[T]he PAC has viewed our entire file. The only thing removed from our file for the PAC’s review were the internal confidential legal memoranda amongst DAO personnel. We do not have [911] transcripts in our file.”
But the e-mail made no mention of police-generated Morris documents in the D.A.’s possession, nor whether a file containing those documents was searched.
In 2008, the D.A.’s Office provided some police-generated Morris documents to an earlier group of PAC members, but no 911 transmissions.
“Certain documents have been retained based on privilege, privacy and/or other grounds,” the agency explained in an April 11, 2008, letter to the PAC.
The D.A.’s Office didn’t elaborate on the legal justification for withholding some police-generated Morris documents from the PAC.
In 2009, PGN requested all complete 911 transmissions pertaining to the Morris incident from the D.A.’s Office.
Without confirming or denying whether it had a complete set of Morris 911 transmissions, the D.A.’s Office vigorously opposed PGN’s request.
In 2012, Philadelphia Common Pleas Judge Idee C. Fox sided with the D.A.
In a 10-page opinion, Fox said the requested 911 transmissions were exempt from public disclosure under the state Criminal History Records Information Act and the state Right-to-Know Law because they pertain to an ongoing homicide investigation.