Lawsuit Over Nude Crime Scene Photos Headed To Court

By Jim Bochnowski in News on Apr 21, 2015 10:10PM

A lawsuit alleging that members of the Cook County Sheriff's Office illegally stripped a young woman who died in a drunk-driving accident and photographed her naked body is finally heading to court next week.

On Dec. 31, 2009, Jessica Mejia was killed after a car driven by her boyfriend, who had a .239 blood alcohol level, crashed into a light pole and rolled into a ditch. The lawsuit filed in 2010 by Mejia's family alleges that after the Cook County Sheriff's department arrived at the scene, the responding officers stripped Mejia of her clothes in clear view of various onlookers and proceeded to take pictures of her naked body.

While the sheriff's department at first denied that such an event had ever taken place, they eventually relented, claiming that photographs were taken as part of the "standard operating procedure" of documenting a crime scene. Cara Smith, a spokeswoman for the sheriff's department stated that officers acted appropriately and were trying to preserve evidence, which was later used to convict Mejia's boyfriend, Nicholas Sord. Sord plead guilty to drunk driving last fall and is currently serving a 56-month prison sentence.

The attorney representing Mejia's family, Don Perry, shared his disgust with the Tribune, stating that "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."

Jessica's mother, Christina Mejia, told the Tribune the lawsuit is an attempt to clear Jessica Mejia's name, as the pictures gave a perception many people believed that the accident was caused by Mejia straddling Sord. "(People) think my daughter died from having sex, not from somebody being drunk and killing her," Christina Mejia said. "So the rumors, and the allegations ... they made it believable."

The family is requesting an acknowledgment of the incident, a formal apology and the knowledge that such an event will never occur again.