Appeal for Morris dispatch records moves forward

Efforts to settle PGN’s open-records request for complete dispatch records pertaining to the Nizah Morris incident from the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office have been unsuccessful.

A series of emails between PGN and the D.A.’s Office were exchanged earlier this month, in the hope of resolving the matter without court intervention. However PGN remains concerned that a proper search for the records wasn’t conducted.

On Nov. 17, the paper informed the agency that it’s moving forward with an appeal for the records in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court.

Morris was given a Center City “courtesy ride” by Officer Elizabeth Skala during the early-morning hours of Dec. 22, 2002. Shortly after the ride, Morris was found by passing motorists with a fatal head wound. The transwoman died two days later, and her homicide remains unsolved.

Skala initiated an unrelated vehicle stop near 13th and Market streets while still assigned to handle Morris, who was extremely inebriated.

In June, PGN requested all complete dispatch records for Skala’s vehicle stop from the D.A.’s Office. The records could help explain why Skala didn’t help facilitate Morris’ transportation to a hospital after her head injury.

By the time Morris was transported by medics to Jefferson University Hospital, she was brain-dead, according to hospital records.

The officer who responded to Morris after her head injury placed a jacket over her face as she was clinging to life, according to an eyewitness.

The D.A.’s Office conveyed to the state Office of Open Records that it has complete dispatch records for Skala’s vehicle stop that were provided by PGN in 2013.

On Oct. 1, the open-records office ordered the D.A.’s Office to give a copy of the records to PGN, and the agency did so last month. But PGN contends the records are incomplete, because they’re missing a date, time, location, priority level and district-control number for Skala’s vehicle stop.

District-control numbers — also known as police-tracking numbers — are generated by computer at the city’s 911 call center, and help track various incidents, including vehicle stops.

Recently, the D.A.’s Office provided two attestations under penalty of perjury, stating that it doesn’t have complete dispatch records for Skala’s vehicle stop, aside from those provided by PGN.

But the attestations set forth a five-digit tracking number for Skala’s vehicle stop, and complete tracking numbers have six digits.

PGN asked the D.A.’s Office to provide an attestation verifying that its search encompassed dispatch records with a six-digit tracking number

In a Nov. 12  email, the agency replied: “[T]his is not the proper time or format to expand your original [open-records] request.”

In response, the paper informed the agency that it’s proceeding with an appeal.

Melissa B. Melewsky, media law counsel for the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association, said asking an agency for a comprehensive search is appropriate.

“It’s appropriate for an [open-records] requester to seek that type of verification from an agency,” Melewsky said. “PGN is still asking for the same records. It just wants verification that a comprehensive search was done.”

Melewsky also noted that the state’s open-records law requires agencies to conduct a “good faith” search for requested records.

“I would hope the D.A.’s Office would want to make sure their affidavits are accurate,” she added.

Additionally, Melewsky said, it’s in the public interest for complete dispatch records for Skala’s vehicle stop to be released, if the D.A.’s Office has them.

PGN’s appeal, which was filed last month, hasn’t been assigned to a judge by presstime.

Advocates for Morris continue to seek a state probe of her homicide, due to concerns that local authorities are engaged in a cover-up.

But so far, state Attorney General Kathleen G. Kane hasn’t agreed to review the case.

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Tim Cwiek has been writing for PGN since the 1970s. He holds a bachelor's degree in history from West Chester State University. In 2013, he received a Sigma Delta Chi Investigative Reporting Award from the Society of Professional Journalists for his reporting on the Nizah Morris case. Cwiek was the first reporter for an LGBT media outlet to win an award from that national organization. He's also received awards from the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association, the National Newspaper Association, and the Keystone Press.