Common Pleas Judge Nina Wright Padilla last week denied PGN’s open-records request for complete dispatch records from the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office pertaining to the Nizah Morris case.
On May 14, shortly after holding a 20-minute hearing, Padilla issued a one-sentence ruling, denying the paper’s request.
Morris was a transgender woman found with a fatal head wound in 2002, shortly after a Center City courtesy ride from Officer Elizabeth Skala.
For reasons not clear in the record, Skala initiated an unrelated vehicle stop while still assigned to handle Morris, who was inebriated.
PGN is seeking complete dispatch records for Skala’s vehicle stop. Complete records could help explain why Skala didn’t respond to Morris after her head injury, when she urgently needed transportation to a hospital.
By the time medics transported Morris to a hospital, she was brain dead due to a fractured skull. Her homicide remains unsolved.
The D.A.’s Office claims to have a record that’s responsive to PGN’s open-records request. It was provided to the D.A.’s Office by PGN in 2013.
But so far, no staffer at the D.A.’s Office has publicly vouched for the record’s authenticity, and PGN doesn’t have firsthand knowledge of its authenticity.
The record appears to be redacted because there’s a blank space on its 3:46 a.m. entry — where the initial priority level for Skala’s vehicle stop might appear.
In 2009, PGN received the record from the city’s Police Advisory Commission, which was unable to trace its source.
Complicating matters are two conflicting affidavits provided by the D.A.’s Office. One of the affidavits indicates the record in question is complete; the other affidavit indicates it’s redacted.
Assistant District Attorney Michael C. Witsch represented the D.A.’s Office at last week’s hearing. Witsch wasn’t involved in the D.A.’s 2003 Morris probe. He didn’t take a position on whether the record in question is complete or redacted.
But Witsch emphasized to the judge that no additional “responsive” records could be located at the D.A.’s Office.
Charles P. Goodwin, an attorney for PGN, said a staffer at the D.A.’s Office who might know whether the record is redacted might also know the location of complete records for Skala’s vehicle stop.
After the hearing, Goodwin said the paper is considering its legal options.
“We’re engaged in a search for the truth,” he said. “And if history is any guide, that doesn’t happen overnight. The wheels of justice turn slowly, but they do turn. So we’re considering all of our legal options before making the next move.”