PGN filed a legal brief in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court this week, seeking complete dispatch records from the District Attorney’s Office pertaining to the Nizah Morris incident.
Morris was a transgender woman found with a fractured skull shortly after a “courtesy ride” from Philadelphia police in 2002. Her homicide remains unsolved.
In June, PGN requested complete dispatch records for a vehicle stop initiated by Officer Elizabeth Skala, who participated in the Morris ride.
Skala was still assigned to handle Morris — who was very intoxicated — when she initiated the unrelated vehicle stop. The resulting confusion contributed to the lack of a prompt criminal investigation of Morris’ head wound.
In August, the D.A.’s Office provided an attestation under penalty of perjury, indicating it doesn’t have complete dispatch records for Skala’s vehicle stop, other than a document it received from PGN in 2013. But that document doesn’t cover a 16-minute interval of 911 entries for the vehicle stop. Additionally, its 3:46 a.m. 911 entry is partially obscured.
The state Office of Open Records ordered the D.A.’s Office to provide the document to PGN. The OOR also determined that the D.A.’s Office met its burden of proving it doesn’t have additional responsive records.
In October, the paper appealed, on the basis that the record provided by the D.A.’s Office is incomplete, and the attestation ambiguous.
“With its ambiguous denial, the D.A.’s Office has failed to carry its burden of demonstrating it has no complete CAD record for the vehicle stop,” the brief states. “The OOR erred because it mistakenly determined the D.A.’s Office located a responsive record, and that the D.A.’s Office properly demonstrated that it does not have other records that are responsive.”
The brief also notes that the D.A.’s Office didn’t convey to the OOR the incomplete nature of the dispatch record supplied by PGN.
“Neither the DA’s Office’s attestation — nor its communications directly to the OOR — reference the incomplete nature of the CAD record for the [vehicle stop]. The OOR’s final determination was made without this information. The OOR thus ordered the release of a non-responsive record.”
The brief asks the court to reverse the OOR’s ruling and order the D.A.’s Office to release all complete dispatch records for the vehicle stop.
If the office doesn’t have complete records for the vehicle stop, PGN requests verification under penalty of perjury.
The brief was filed by Charles P. Goodwin, an attorney for the paper.
“Filing this brief is another step in bringing transparency to Nizah Morris’ murder and ensuring that she has received the same justice as everyone else,” Goodwin said.
The deadline for the D.A.’s Office to reply is April 6. Oral arguments are scheduled for after May 4 before Common Pleas Judge Alice B. Dubow.