PGN files appeal for Morris 911 recordings

PGN has filed an appeal with the state Office of Open Records, requesting that the District Attorney’s Office be ordered to provide a certified copy of its 911 recordings pertaining to the Nizah Morris incident.

Morris was a transgender woman found with a fatal head wound in 2002, shortly after a “courtesy ride” from Philadelphia police. Her homicide remains unsolved.

On Nov. 12, PGN asked the D.A.’s Office for a certified copy of all Morris 911 recordings in its possession. A week later, the office provided a non-certified copy of a transcript of partial 911 recordings that it received from PGN five years ago.

PGN gave the D.A.’s Office the partial transcript in 2010, in order to help the agency locate key 911 recordings believed to be in the D.A.’s possession.    Computer-assisted dispatch records show the missing recordings existed in 2002, but local officials haven’t explained what happened to them.

If the D.A.’s Office can’t locate the missing recordings, it should certify that under penalty of perjury, according to PGN’s Nov. 30 appeal.

“If the D.A.’s Office doesn’t have additional Morris 911 recordings, the Right-to-Know law places the burden on the D.A.’s Office to demonstrate that fact under penalty of perjury,” PGN’s appeal states. “For several years, the D.A.’s Office has studiously avoided doing so. This stonewalling must come to an end. Regurgitating the transcript [PGN] shared doesn’t absolve the DAO of its burden.”

Also this week, the paper asked the OOR to hold a public hearing in the matter.

“For almost 13 years, the missing 911 recordings — which are key to understanding the Morris incident — have been a source of grave concern,” the appeal states. “Local officials refuse to account for them, though computer-assisted dispatch records clearly show they existed in 2002. The DAO’s vague, deceptive and unreasonable response to [PGN’s open-records] request reinforces the public perception of a cover-up. Isn’t more than a decade of official obfuscation and game-playing long enough?”

At presstime, PGN’s appeal and request for a public hearing remained pending. 

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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.