Trial to Begin for Cops Accused of Taking Nude Photos at Scene of Fatal Crash

The family of a New Lenox woman killed in a drunk driving crash in 2009 is suing the Cook County Sheriff’s office, claiming officers took the clothes off the woman’s body and took nude photographs after the accident. Trial is set to begin Monday.

On New Year’s Eve in 2009, 20-year-old Jessica Mejia was riding in a Mercedes SUV driven by her boyfriend Nicholas Sord, when he lost control on 147th Street near Justamere Road between Tinley Park and Oak Forest. The car struck a pole and Mejia was killed.

The lawsuit, filed in late 2010 by Mejia’s mother Christina and other relatives, alleges that officers on the scene peeled off Mejia’s clothes despite the department’s rules.

“This was a young lady that just died and was treated with less dignity than a deer carcass you find on the side of the road,” said Don Perry, the family’s attorney.

Mejia’s mother said the officers’ actions perpetuated the rumor that the accident was caused by Mejia straddling Sord while he was driving, rather than by Sord’s intoxication. Sord’s blood alcohol content was more than three times the legal limit. Sord, of Orland Park, last fall pleaded guilty to DUI and in November was sentenced to 4 1/2 years in prison.

The Chicago Tribune reports that the photos show a Mejia dead in the backseat, fully clothed in jeans, a t-shirt and high heels. Other photos from the scene show her body removed from the car and placed on a tarp on the ground, naked except for her panties.

“To see the way my daughter’s body was handled, at the scene, was so confusing and so disturbing,” Mejia told the Tribune. “I just don’t understand why they did that.”

>>via The Chicago Tribune