Orland Park Man Pleads Guilty to Drunken Driving in Fatal 2009 Crash Near Oak Forest

Almost five years after a crash that took the life of his girlfriend, an Orland Park man has pleaded guilty to a drunken driving charge. Nicholas Sord has yet to be sentenced.

On New Year’s Eve in 2009, Sord and Jessica Mejia, 20, of New Lenox, were driving on 147th Street near Justamere Road between Tinley Park and Oak Forest at 4:20 a.m. when Sord lost control of his Mercedes SUV and hit a pole. Mejia was killed.

Sord’s blood-alcohol level was 0.236 — almost three times the legal limit. Tests also showed he had opiates in his system, but his attorneys in 2012 were successfully able to show he was taking a prescription drug, hydrocodone, on doctor’s orders.

Sord’s attorney has argued that Mejia distracted him and that’s why he lost control of the vehicle. Sord also had been charged with reckless homicide. Sord entered his drunken driving guilty plea on Oct. 2, according to Sun-Times Media. He is next expected to appear in court Nov. 7. In October 2012, Sord rejected a plea agreement, the details of which were not revealed.

Sord and Mejia, a Lincoln-Way Central High School graduate, had broken up in August of 2009 before she entered college at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Sord told Cook County sheriff’s investigators that he was out drinking with friends before he went to Mejia’s home that night and picked her up. He said they were headed to his house.

Mejia’s family filed a civil lawsuit against Sord and his family. He’s the son of restaurateur and developer Bryan Sord. The Mejias also filed a lawsuit against the Cook County Sheriff’s Department, accusing deputies of taking nude photos of Mejia by the side of the road. The family also filed suit against several bars where Sord was drinking.

Sord was 22 at the time of the crash. The Chicago Tribune reported at the time that Sord was partnering with Blackhawks legend Denis Savard to open a restaurant in Indiana. Shortly after the crash, Savard pulled out of the partnership.