Lawsuit Over Nude Crime Scene Photos Headed To Court

Chicagoist
Apr. 23, 2015

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.

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