With a fortunate pull in the right place, I finally got the panel off. I took me a while to figure out how pop the connector out but it wasn't too bad. From there I was able to release the individual wires and then crimp the ends just enough so that now there's a solid connection to the pins of the scan tool.
I used this video to figure out how to remove the wires from the plug.
Thanks for your reply.
mrfixiter