The Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office last week reiterated that it’s unable to certify a record pertaining to the Nizah Morris case, even though a judge ruled the agency already certified the record.
The dispute stems from an open-records request filed by PGN, seeking a certified copy of computer-aided dispatch records for a traffic stop in the Morris case.
Morris, a trans woman, was found with a fatal head wound in 2002, shortly after a “courtesy ride” from Officer Elizabeth Skala.
Inexplicably, Skala initiated a traffic stop at 13th and Market streets, though she was assigned to handle Morris, who was critically injured and clinging to life at 16th and Walnut streets.
In 2013, PGN gave the D.A.’s Office partial records for the traffic stop. In June, Common Pleas Judge Linda A. Carpenter ruled the D.A.’s Office certified those records in a February 2015 affidavit.
But the D.A.’s Office apparently refuses to accept that it certified the records.
On July 20, the D.A.’s Office appealed Carpenter’s ruling in Commonwealth Court. Last week, the agency filed a two-page “statement of issues” with the court, explaining its challenge of Carpenter’s ruling.
According to the filing, the D.A.’s Office cannot certify the record obtained from PGN because it didn’t create the record, isn’t a custodian of the record and doesn’t have the original record.
When an agency in Pennsylvania receives an open-records request, it’s required by law to certify that it’s providing all responsive, non-exempt records to the requester.
PGN’s position is that until the D.A.’s Office provides such certification, the agency hasn’t demonstrated that it’s not withholding records for Skala’s traffic stop.
In a related matter, the D.A.’s Office filed a document verifying that it ordered a transcript of oral arguments in the case, which took place in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court. The Aug. 10 document also verifies that there haven’t been efforts to settle the case.
Once the transcript and other records in the case are provided to Commonwealth Court, a briefing schedule will be issued.
Commonwealth Court offers a non-binding mediation program for suitable cases. Thus far, the case hasn’t been selected for the mediation program.
In 2013, after a 10-year review, the city’s Police Advisory Commission took an unprecedented step of recommending state and federal probes of the Morris case. But so far, no state or federal agency appears to be investigating the case.