The Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office last week appealed a lower-court ruling upholding a state-agency order for the D.A. to produce certified records in the Nizah Morris case.
On June 20, Philadelphia Common Pleas Judge Linda A. Carpenter affirmed an order by the state Office of Open Records, directing the D.A.’s Office to produce a certified copy of its computer-aided dispatch records for a traffic stop in the Morris case.
But on July 19, the D.A.’s Office filed a notice of appeal of Carpenter’s ruling in Commonwealth Court.
Officer Elizabeth Skala gave Morris a “courtesy ride” during the early morning hours of Dec. 22, 2002. Shortly after the ride, Morris was found by passers-by with a fatal head wound. The trans woman’s homicide remains unsolved.
Inexplicably, Skala initiated a traffic stop at 13th and Market streets, though she was still assigned to Morris, who was critically injured and fighting for her life at 16th and Walnut streets.
In February 2015, the D.A.’s Office stated in a sworn affidavit that its only computer-aided dispatch records for Skala’s traffic stop are partial and were provided by PGN in 2013.
The D.A.’s Office submitted that affidavit to a Philadelphia Common Pleas Court judge in April 2015.
In her June 20 ruling, Carpenter said the affidavit certified the D.A.’s dispatch records for Skala’s traffic stop.
However, no document is attached to the affidavit, even though the affidavit states that a partial record is attached.
PGN’s position is that until the D.A.’s Office produces the partial record, the agency hasn’t certified that it’s not withholding additional records for Skala’s traffic stop.
Babette Josephs, a member of the Justice for Nizah Committee, said D.A. Seth Williams should comply with Carpenter’s ruling.
“We should all be concerned that taxpayer dollars are being used for this type of litigation,” Josephs told PGN. “Seth Williams should do as ordered by the Office of Open Records and [as] affirmed by Judge Carpenter. And I’d like to see the release of all Morris records at the D.A.’s Office currently withheld from the public. If Mr. Williams wants to improve relations with the LGBTQ community, I can’t think of a better way to do that.”
Melissa B. Melewsky, media-law counsel for the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association, was disappointed with the D.A.’s notice of appeal.
“It’s disappointing that this case has been pending for so long,” Melewsky said in an email. “The Right-to-Know Law is intended to provide access and accountability quickly. And the Morris RTKL issue has been pending for years. The law requires the D.A. to provide public access to public records and allows discretion to release non-public records when it serves the public interest. The delays and denials in this case have not allowed the public to understand what happened to Ms. Morris or the criminal justice system’s response to her death. The public is entitled to know basic details about this case, and the constant delays and denials erode the public’s faith in elected officials tasked with keeping the community safe. The D.A. needs to provide accountability. That doesn’t mean access to every record in the ongoing Morris investigation. But it does require access to basic records like those PGN has been seeking for several years.”