Cook County Circuit Judge Thomas J. Lipscomb warned jurors that images of 20-year-old Jessica Mejia’s body that were about to be projected on a screen were “graphic” and “not the kind generally seen by the public.”
Minutes later, Mejia’s family sat in the corner of the courtroom, wiping tears from their cheeks as they listened to testimony from Maria Lopez, the evidence technician for the Cook County sheriff’s department who took the photos.
Lopez and Don Stewart, a more senior evidence technician who guided her on the scene, testified Wednesday at the Circuit Court of Cook County in Chicago that protocol, efficiency and preservation of trace evidence were the reasons behind their decision to undress and photograph Mejia’s body over a tarp on the snowy ground of the crime scene where she died in a car accident on Dec. 31, 2009.
Mejia’s mother, Christina Mejia, and other relatives are suing the Cook County Sheriff’s Department, claiming the photos and the manner in which they were taken — including the technicians’ decision to not cover parts of the body already photographed — caused the family emotional distress. The lawsuit is based on a 2010 complaint that states that after the defendants placed Mejia on a tarp, they “proceeded to remove her clothing, pull down her blue jeans and pull up her blouse and bra, thereby exposing her bare breasts, stomach, back, underwear, and buttocks in full and plain view of the public and passersby.”
Stewart, who testified to previously pulling up a victim’s shirt and bra “several times” for his job of collecting crime scene evidence, and Lopez testified that Lopez followed protocol when she photographed Mejia’s upper nude torso, followed by her partially nude lower torso and then flipped her over to photograph her backside, then her arms and wrists, not covering any exposed, previously photographed parts between each photo.
When one of the Mejia family’s attorneys, Louis E. Gasperec, asked Lopez whether it would have been possible to photograph smaller sections of the body, so that parts of the body could be covered along the way, Lopez testified that she followed protocol to preserve trace evidence — which she said includes blood, other bodily fluids and hair — and act more efficiently.
When Gasperec asked Lopez if she could have at least covered Mejia’s torso when photographing her wrists, Lopez remained firm.
“No, we’re not going to distort evidence by moving her clothes up and down,” Lopez said. “It’s protocol and we’re not going to disturb evidence constantly.”
Gasperec pointed out Lopez was contradicting her 2012 testimony for a deposition, when she said it was “possible” to photograph smaller sections of Mejia’s body, but Lopez said she was less experienced then and knows better now.
Lopez said she photographed Mejia’s entire body according to department rules. Then when Gasperec pointed out she didn’t photograph Mejia’s ankles, Lopez admitted to not following protocol completely.
Mejia died while riding in a Mercedes driven by her ex-boyfriend, Nicholas Sord, who was drunk when he crashed into a pole. The car rolled over in a ditch near 147th Street and Oak Park Avenue in unincorporated Cook County.
Christina Mejia previously said she filed the suit to clear her daughter’s name after rumors that Mejia caused the accident by straddling Sord, who is serving a 56-month prison sentence. At the time of the accident, Sord had a blood-alcohol content of 0.236, approximately three times the legal limit. Christina Mejia explained that many people in the southwest suburbs thought her daughter “died from having sex, not from somebody being drunk and killing her. Because they took these photos, by the time everybody else got to the scene, all the ambulances and everybody else, she was partially naked because they made her naked.”
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Sheriff’s Lt. Matthew Rafferty also testified Wednesday afternoon that he heard Sord making statements as he was taken to the hospital in handcuffs following the accident. He said Sord was claiming “that the deceased had been mounting or straddling him while he was driving.”
Rafferty, Stewart and Lopez all testified that Rafferty informed Lopez and Stewart about Sord’s comments, asking them to find out if there was any evidence to support them. They said they did not find evidence to confirm Sord’s comments.
Rafferty also suggested, in keeping with the sheriff’s defense attorneys’ argument, that this timely work done by the evidence technicians helped convict Sord, helping Rafferty confront him for being dishonest.
Rafferty, Stewart and Bob Nawrot, an accident reconstructionist for the sheriff’s department who testified in the morning, also said the area where Mejia’s body was exposed was not only blocked off from traffic, but low in the ditch where the car ended up and partially blocked by the Mercedes, and not visible from any nearby homes, making it challenging for the public to see it.
Lopez and Stewart testified that they walked the crime scene for two to three hours collecting evidence, but did not examine Mejia’s body until the very end.
The trial is scheduled to resume at 9:30 a.m. Thursday.
Tara Kadioglu is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.