The city’s Citizens Police Oversight Commission (CPOC) last week pledged to conduct an independent review of the Nizah Morris incident and to report back to the community with its findings.
The agency has agreed to review PGN’s complaint that three officers falsified documentation relating to a “courtesy ride” given by police to Morris shortly before she became a homicide victim in 2002.
The officers who allegedly falsified documentation are Kenneth Novak, Elizabeth Didonato and Thomas Berry.
“We’re committed to taking a fresh look at the case in a thorough, independent manner,” said Jamison S. Rogers, director of investigations for CPOC. “It’s going to be a comprehensive look, from A to Z. We’re very empathetic to what the community and family are going through.”
Nicholas A. R. Kato, chief investigator for CPOC, echoed Rogers’ sentiments.
“The inquiry will include the night of Ms. Morris’ [head injury] to the present — and all of the relevant events that followed her death,” Kato told PGN.
Kato emphasized the inquiry will be fair to all parties.
“We’re taking a neutral, objective approach,” Kato continued. “Generally speaking, it’s just as important for us to exonerate officers of [alleged] misconduct that didn’t occur as it is to hold officers accountable who did engage in misconduct. Therefore, our conclusions are driven by the facts uncovered by the review.”
Background of the incident
Morris, 47, was a trans woman of color who was found with a fatal head wound in Center City, shortly after receiving a “courtesy ride” from Didonato around 3:13 a.m. on Dec. 22, 2002.
Morris had been drinking at a bar on Juniper and Chancellor streets in the Gayborhood and the ride was purportedly intended to take her home.
However, Morris lived in West Philadelphia and the ride concluded in the vicinity of 16th and Walnut streets — which was four miles away from her residence. After her head injury, Morris was transported to Jefferson Hospital by city medics.
Morris’ homicide was committed within minutes of the courtesy ride and remains unsolved.
CPOC’s inquiry of a 22-year-old case is unprecedented in the city and possibly the country. Police oversight agencies typically review cases that are much more recent.
The now-defunct Police Advisory Commission reviewed the case for about 10 years, from 2003-2013. The PAC ultimately recommended state and federal probes of the incident but didn’t take steps to ensure those probes would take place.
PGN files complaint
In November 2023, PGN filed a complaint with CPOC, alleging falsification of documentation by the three officers. CPOC forwarded PGN’s complaint to the Philadelphia Police Department’s internal affairs bureau for investigation. Thus far, the bureau hasn’t provided an update to PGN regarding the status of its investigation.
Discipline sought for falsified paperwork
PGN’s complaint focuses on the patrol logs submitted by all three officers and a police report written by Berry. PGN contends the documentation falsely conceals the courtesy ride for Morris and her subsequent assault.
PGN’s complaint doesn’t ask CPOC to solve Morris’ homicide, but it does seek discipline of the responding officers for allegedly filing falsified documentation relating to a homicide.
Although Didonato was disciplined in 2005 for canceling an ambulance that was summoned for Morris, none of the officers were disciplined for filing falsified documentation.
Officers’ paperwork never clarified
Over the years, police have declined to clarify the responding officers’ paperwork. For example, police haven’t explained why officers wrote “hospital case” in patrol-log boxes where “investigate person” and “police transport” should have been written.
Also, police haven’t explained why Novak wrote “MC” (an abbreviation for “meet complainant”) after he was dispatched to Jefferson Hospital, where hospital personnel believed Morris was an assault victim.
“Meet complainant” is a term used by police when a citizen has a complaint requiring a police response. However, nobody at Jefferson “complained” to police about Morris, who was comatose. Police never identified the “complainant” referred to in Novak’s patrol log nor whom the respondent would be.
Additionally, police never clarified an indecipherable word written by Novak in his patrol log relating to Morris. In December 2023, after PGN asked police for clarity about the word, a police spokesperson said “[t]he internal investigation remains ongoing.”
Didonato gives an “unfounded” designation
Shortly after the courtesy ride, Didonato and Novak remained at an unrelated vehicle stop near City Hall for more than an hour — rather than responding to Morris at 16th and Walnut streets, where she was unconscious and bleeding from the head.
Didonato acknowledged hearing a radio call for service for someone at 16th and Walnut streets but told investigators she didn’t think it could be her courtesy-ride recipient.
PGN’s complaint alleges that Didonato and Novak intentionally remained at the vehicle stop to avoid linking the courtesy ride to Morris’ head injury in their paperwork.
According to 911 tapes and witness testimony, Morris was very inebriated and couldn’t stand or walk without assistance. It would be extremely unlikely for Didonato to think her courtesy-ride recipient couldn’t be someone lying in the street at 16th and Walnut.
A key witness, Paul Gisondi, told investigators that Didonato encountered Morris lying in the street partially clothed at Juniper and Chancellor a few minutes before Didonato returned to Juniper and Chancellor at 3:13 a.m. and embarked on a “courtesy ride” for Morris.
At 4:02 a.m., while still at her vehicle stop, Didonato told a dispatcher that her earlier dispatch at Juniper and Chancellor was “unfounded,” thus disassociating Morris from her 6th District tracking numbers.
At 4:06 a.m., Berry told a dispatcher to assign 9th District tracking numbers to Morris as “hospital case.” Berry’s classification of Morris as a 9th District “hospital case” was key to concealing the courtesy ride and subsequent assault of Morris, according to PGN’s complaint.
No examination of officers
Due to the alleged coverup, no examination of the officers was conducted on the morning of Morris’ homicide. Detectives never examined them for bloodstains on their clothing or for scratches or any type of injuries that morning. Also, their vehicles weren’t examined for blood splatter.
Similarly, Morris’ clothing wasn’t preserved. According to witnesses, Morris had ill-fitting clothing that left her partially exposed when assisted into Didonato’s vehicle. She was nude from the waist up when discovered by passers-by after her head injury.
Officers investigate Morris at hospital
Beginning at 5:38 a.m., all three officers went to Jefferson Hospital where hospital personnel suspected Morris was an assault victim.
Novak and Didonato apparently didn’t know Berry wrote a police report about the incident — a purported miscommunication that gave them more leeway when filling out their patrol logs at the hospital.
The timing and wording of their log entries for their Juniper/Chancellor dispatch actually reinforce Berry’s paperwork that Morris was initially seen on the west side of Broad Street and subsequently became a 9th District hospital case.
Also troubling is the fact that Novak and Didonato were dispatched to Juniper and Chancellor to investigate a person suspected of possessing drugs. That fact wasn’t documented anywhere in their patrol logs.
PGN has provided 911 tapes to CPOC to verify the above narrative. Police claim they lost their Morris 911 tapes when they lost their Morris homicide file in 2003.
Cell phone conversations
The officers reportedly engaged in cell phone conversations regarding the Morris incident, including with a supervisor. However, it remains unclear what role the alleged cell phone conversations played in the structuring of the officers’ paperwork.
Information regarding the alleged cell phone conversations is housed at the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office, and remains off-limits to the public.
It’s expected that CPOC will seek access to the cell phone information at the DA’s Office during the course of its Morris inquiry.
Summary of officers’ paperwork
In summary, the officers’ paperwork vaguely conveys that Novak went to Juniper/Chancellor at 3:15 a.m. for a “hospital case.” Although a 6th District “hospital case” wasn’t there, Berry and Didonato encountered a drunken person 10 minutes later near Broad and Walnut who subsequently became a 9th District “hospital case” that all three officers handled. That person was Morris, though she wasn’t identified by name in the paperwork.
In his patrol log, Novak recorded the 9th District tracking numbers for the “hospital case” (Morris), as if to reiterate the person wasn’t seen by police in the 6th District prior to being transported to Jefferson Hospital by medics.
Berry’s report conveys that Morris became a “hospital case” at 3:30 a.m., when she fell and cut her head. Novak and DiDonato’s logs state they embarked on an unrelated vehicle stop near City Hall at 3:30 a.m.
Thus, the paperwork also conveys at least four minutes of separation between the time Berry and Didonato interacted with Morris at 3:25-3:26 a.m. near Broad and Walnut and the time she became a “hospital case,” at 3:30 a.m.
(In reality, 911 tapes show that Morris sustained her fatal head injury by 3:25 a.m., when a bystander called 911 and reported the injury.)
A supervisor reviewing the paperwork would see nothing about a “courtesy ride” taking place in the 6th District and there would be no reason to examine the officers and their vehicles for bloodstains or other evidence.
Optimism tempered with realism
Rogers, the director of investigations at CPOC, cautioned the community to not have unrealistic expectations of what the agency can accomplish.
“We do have to temper expectations,” Rogers asserted. “We know there have been other reviews done in the past. We can’t promise that our review will be any different. But we can promise that we’re taking a fresh look at the case.”
Rogers encouraged anyone with information about the Morris incident to contact CPOC at (215) 685-0891 or send an email to [email protected].
Asa Khalif, a close friend of Morris, said he’ll closely monitor CPOC’s inquiry.
“Someone killed Nizah Morris,” Khalif told PGN. “A meteor didn’t fall from the sky and kill her. At this point, I can’t rule out the police, because they were the last known persons in Nizah’s presence. I fully expect CPOC to leave no stone unturned in its review of the police response to Nizah Morris.”