The Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office this week filed a legal brief urging a Philadelphia judge to reverse an order by the state Office of Open Records pertaining to the Nizah Morris case.
Morris was a trans woman found with a fatal head wound in 2002, shortly after a Center City “courtesy ride” by Officer Elizabeth Skala. Morris’ homicide remains unsolved.
PGN seeks from the D.A. certified copies of its dispatch records for a traffic stop initiated by Skala while assigned to handle Morris, who was intoxicated.
In August, the state Office of Open Records ordered the D.A.’s Office to comply with PGN’s request, but the agency has refused to do so. Instead, the D.A. appealed the order in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court.
Since 2013, the D.A.’s Office has submitted five affidavits indicating its only dispatch record for Skala’s traffic stop was given to it by PGN. Two other agency affidavits indicate it doesn’t have any dispatch records for Skala’s traffic stop.
The dispatch record PGN gave to the D.A.’s Office in 2009 was received from the city’s Police Advisory Commission in 2008. It’s missing several entries, and one of its entries appears to contain a redaction.
PGN gave the record to the D.A.’s Office in order to help the agency locate more complete records for Skala’s traffic stop believed to be in its possession.
Last year, PGN asked the D.A.’s Office to provide a certified copy of all of its dispatch records for Skala’s traffic stop, including its record from PGN.
As stated earlier, the D.A.’s Office declined to comply with PGN’s request, even when ordered to do so by OOR.
In its Feb. 1 appellant’s brief, the D.A.’s Office calls OOR’s order “illogical.”
The brief claims OOR’s order could result in people demanding “legal certifications from the DAO of any document imaginable, including Barack Obama’s birth certificate, a transcript of the 18 and one-half missing minutes of the Nixon tapes or a photograph of the Loch Ness monster.”
The brief also argues that the D.A.’s Office isn’t a “custodian” of computer-assisted dispatch documents, thus PGN’s request is inappropriate.
However, the D.A.’s Office provided several Morris computer-assisted dispatch documents to the city’s Police Advisory Commission in 2008.
Additionally, the D.A.’s brief raises concerns about the authenticity of its document from PGN. Those concerns weren’t raised in the D.A.’s five affidavits citing the document as a responsive record.
PGN’s position is that the D.A.’s Office has ample resources to ascertain the document’s authenticity, if it believes that’s necessary.
The case is assigned to Philadelphia Common Pleas Judge Linda A. Carpenter.
PGN’s reply brief is due March 7, and oral arguments are tentatively set for 9 a.m. April 4 in Courtroom 232 of City Hall.