Year after alleged DUI death, lawsuit and charges

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Christina Mejia, talks about her daughter Jessica at her New Lenox home. Jessica Mejia was killed last New Year's Eve last year after a car wreck. Her ex-boyfriend, Nick Sord, was charged with aggravated DUI and reckless homicide | Matt Marton~Sun-Time

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Updated: May 1, 2011 4:46AM

NEW LENOX — The family of a woman killed in an alleged DUI crash last New Year’s Eve is suing the Cook County sheriff’s office for allegedly removing the woman’s clothes and taking nude photos of her on the side of the road.

Jessica C. Mejia, 20, of New Lenox, was killed at 4:20 a.m. Dec. 31, 2009, after the SUV in which she was a passenger crashed into a pole, caromed into a ditch and rolled over on its side near 147th Street and Oak Park Avenue in unincorporated Cook County near Oak Forest.

The vehicle was being driven by Nicholas Sord, 23, of 10650 Churchill Drive, Orland Park, a former boyfriend of Jessica’s who was charged with aggravated drunken driving and reckless homicide, both felonies.

Every day since Thanksgiving, her mother, Christina Mejia, has watched the movie “Jesus of Nazareth.” The film helped bring a sense of peace to the New Lenox woman as the first anniversary of her daughter’s death approached.

“The movie comforts me by reminding me that Jessica’s in heaven,” Mejia said Wednesday, the day before she and three other family members filed the lawsuit in Cook County Circuit Court.

The suit claims responding Cook County sheriff’s police removed Jessica’s clothing without medical justification, in view of passersby and onlookers at the crash scene, and took multiple nude photographs. It also says investigators did not follow protocol.

Investigators “failed to treat decedent with the dignity and the respect due her by removing her clothes, by photographing her nude body in various positions none of which were required by protocol, and by allowing passersby and other responders to view her naked person,” the family alleges.

The sheriff’s department denies the allegations.

“From the moment our officers arrived upon the scene of this horrific crash one year ago, we have worked hard to provide justice to the family of the victim,” Cook County Sheriff’s office spokesman Steve Patterson said in a statement. “While we’ve remained in contact with them, we’ve never before heard of the bizarre scenario this lawsuit describes.

“There were multiple independent witnesses on the scene that night and crime scene photographs taken which would have prevented the scenario described from happening. We’re sorry for the family’s loss.”

The four-count suit — filed Thursday by Christina Mejia, Gabriela Mejia, Louis Mejia Jr. and Louis Mejia III — is seeking more than $200,000 for “severe and extreme distress.”

Remembering Jessica

The Mejia family planned to spend the first anniversary of Jessica’s death enjoying homemade tamales cooked by Jessica’s grandmother, Leticia Garcia, watching videos of Jessica and playing Wii games.

“She’d want us to do some fun, energetic and positive things, too. That’s what she liked to do,” Mejia said of her daughter, who ran track and was on the dance team when she was a student at Lincoln-Way Central High School and was part of another dance team at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Mejia said she dealt with her loss by relying on her strong faith in God, which she said has kept her from wallowing in bitterness.

“It gives me strength and courage,” she said. “When the police first came to my door to tell me that horrible news, I went into shock and ran upstairs crying. Later, an image of Jesus dying on the cross came into my head, and I thought of her being in heaven and that I must not just dwell on the negative.”

Christina Mejia’s fiance, Mike Tucker, who was a stepfather-figure in Jessica’s life, said Christina has been an inspiration in the past year.

“From the first, she didn’t want to concentrate on the accident or the moment of her death,” he said. “Instead, we try to think about celebrating Jessica’s eternal life in heaven. Even though it was a tragedy, Christina initiated us on focusing on Jessica’s life. It’s helped me a whole lot because I had nothing but anger when it first happened.”

She and her other daughter, Gabriella, both got tattoos on the backs of their necks of the Chinese symbol for strength to mirror what Jessica had done shortly before she died.

“Jessica always told me she admired the strength I had, so she got that tattoo,” her mother said.

That strength may never have been greater than when Christina Mejia, a hairdresser, insisted on doing her daughter’s hair for the funeral.

“When you love your child so much, God gives you the strength to do it,” she said, fighting back tears. “I always did her hair, and I knew how she would want it. It was the last time I could do her hair and her makeup. I concentrated on giving her the most beautiful funeral because I couldn’t give her a wedding.”

The family believes the spirit of Jessica is always around them and has influenced their lives.

Tucker said the experiences of the past year have made faith crucial to him.

“My Christian faith is the one thing I can fall back on, and I can chalk that up to the days following the accident,” he said. “Jessica always wanted to go to church, but I didn’t. Now I go on a weekly basis.”

Gabriella and Jessica’s cousin, Kayla Hollingsworth, have tattoos expressing quotes important to Jessica, and her favorite number, 33.

“It made us feel better getting the tattoos,” said Gabriella, 18, a student at DePaul University, who was extremely close to her older sister.

Christina Mejia said she changed her license plate to “JCM 33.” It is her daughter’s initials and favorite number and the initials of Jesus Christ Messiah and the age Jesus was when he died.

All of this is “comforting and makes us feel she is still with us,” Mejia said.

‘Let truth prevail’

The family is adamant about keeping tabs on the criminal proceedings resulting from the crash.

Christina and Gabriella, Tucker and Garcia all have been to every one of Sord’s court dates in the past year. Other family members and friends, as well as members of MADD and AAIM (two groups that try to prevent drunken driving), also have gone to court to support the family, all of them wearing buttons with a photo of Jessica and the words “I pray for justice for Jessica.”

Sord, whose blood-alcohol content was nearly three times the legal limit at the time of the crash, according to police, faces up to 14 years in prison on the aggravated drunken driving and reckless homicide charges.

Christina Mejia said she believes that a person who drinks and drives and causes someone to lose their life should be held accountable.

“I leave that in the hands of God,” she said. “I trust God will let truth prevail and the right thing will happen.”

Sord is due in court Jan. 20 at the Markham courthouse. He and his attorney did not return calls for comment.