Both sides in an open-records dispute regarding the Nizah Morris case will present oral arguments to a Philadelphia judge next week.
Oral arguments are scheduled for 10 a.m. April 7 in Courtroom 232 of City Hall before Philadelphia Common Pleas Judge Linda A. Carpenter.
Morris was a trans woman found with a fatal head wound shortly after a Center City “courtesy ride” from Officer Elizabeth Skala in 2002. Inexplicably, Skala initiated a traffic stop at 13th and Market streets while assigned to handle Morris, who was intoxicated.
Morris sustained a fatal head wound from an unknown person or persons a few minutes before Skala initiated the traffic stop.
While Skala ticketed a motorist for driving without proper paperwork, Morris gradually became brain dead, lying unconscious at the corner of 16th and Walnut streets.
PGN is seeking from the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office dispatch records pertaining to Skala’s traffic stop.
A document PGN obtained from the city’s Police Advisory Commission appears to contain records for the traffic stop. But the records appear to be missing key entries, including entries that would specify the traffic stop’s priority level.
PGN gave the PAC document to the D.A.’s Office in 2009.
Since 2013, the D.A.’s Office has submitted eight affidavits relating to Skala’s traffic stop. But PGN contends the affidavits don’t certify whether or not the D.A.’s Office has dispatch records for the stop.
In August, the state Office of Open Records ordered the D.A.’s Office to certify the traffic-stop records contained in the PAC document.
But the D.A.’s Office refuses to comply, claiming it’s not required to certify records given to it by outside entities such as PGN.
In a recent brief, the D.A.’s Office claimed 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 D.A.’s brief also argues that the agency isn’t a “custodian” of Morris dispatch records, thus PGN’s request is inappropriate.
For its part, PGN claims the D.A.’s Office should certify whether or not the PAC document contains traffic-stop dispatch records. Alternately, the D.A.’s Office should certify whether or not its other documents contain traffic-stop dispatch records.
To refute the D.A.’s claim that it isn’t a “custodian” of Morris’ dispatch records, the paper also notes that the office supplied several Morris dispatch records to the PAC in 2008.
Melissa B. Melewsky, media-law counsel for the Pennsylvania NewsMedia association, supports transparency in the Morris case.
“The state’s Right-to-Know Law is intended to provide citizens a measure of accountability for government action,” Melewsky said. “Access is absolutely necessary to enable accountability, and government agencies must be forthcoming and operate in good faith under the law. Government functions best when there is an informed citizenry, but a lack of access does a disservice to citizens as well as government function overall. The city needs to provide clear information on the Morris incident, so the public can understand what happened, and what, if anything, went wrong. Only then can the public truly hold the city accountable.”