This is just unbelievable!
http://business.avn.com/articles/le...-Dead-Girl-s-Body-After-Collision-594838.html
COOK COUNTY, Illinois—People in the adult entertainment industry are used to seeing naked human bodies. After all, they're porn's stock-in-trade, and nobody gets excited if someone walks around a movie set without clothes or shows up at an industry event wearing next to nothing. But we sometimes forget that for many ordinary citizens, nudity is a really big thing—and when it's the cops creating that nudity for no good reason, it's a Really Big Thing!
At least, that's the basis of a lawsuit filed by Christina Mejia, whose daughter Jessica was killed on the day before New Year's in 2009 when her drunk ex-boyfriend wrapped his Mercedes around a pole, after which it rolled over and landed in a ditch, killing the 20-year-old woman and eventually landing the ex in the hoosegow for just shy of five years.
But it's what the cops did at the accident scene that'll be argued in Cook County Court next Monday. Mama Mejia's lawsuit contends that the sheriff's department officers who responded to the accident removed Jessica's body from the vehicle, removed all of her clothes except her panties, and photographed her nearly nude body as it lay on a tarp by the side of the road—all of which, Mrs. Mejia charges, is in violation of the sheriff's department's own rules.
"[People] think my 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," Mejia told the Chicago Tribune. "So the rumors, and the allegations ... they made it believable."
Although the police took some photos of Jessica's body while it was still in the car, as is common in accident investigations, they then removed the body from the car, took off her T-shirt, jeans, bra and high heels and spread her out on a tarp to take more photos—as is exceptionally uncommon in accident investigations.
"To see the way my daughter's body was handled, at the scene, was so confusing and so disturbing," Mrs. Mejia said. "I just didn't understand why they did that."
At first, the Sheriff's Department denied that any such photos existed, but once they surfaced, the department changed its tune. Spokeswoman Cara Smith then claimed that the officers acted appropriately, and only took the nearly nude photos to preserve evidence that later helped to convict the drunk driver.
"The family suffered an unimaginable loss, and the crime scene photos were taken as our officers investigated this crime and were instrumental in securing a conviction against the person responsible for this tragic death," Smith said. "In no way were these photos intended to cause harm to the family."
"I don't feel protected," said Mrs. Mejia, who was reportedly on the verge of tears when she was interviewed by the Tribune. "I feel violated."
"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," commented the Mejia family attorney, Don Perry.
http://business.avn.com/articles/le...-Dead-Girl-s-Body-After-Collision-594838.html
COOK COUNTY, Illinois—People in the adult entertainment industry are used to seeing naked human bodies. After all, they're porn's stock-in-trade, and nobody gets excited if someone walks around a movie set without clothes or shows up at an industry event wearing next to nothing. But we sometimes forget that for many ordinary citizens, nudity is a really big thing—and when it's the cops creating that nudity for no good reason, it's a Really Big Thing!
At least, that's the basis of a lawsuit filed by Christina Mejia, whose daughter Jessica was killed on the day before New Year's in 2009 when her drunk ex-boyfriend wrapped his Mercedes around a pole, after which it rolled over and landed in a ditch, killing the 20-year-old woman and eventually landing the ex in the hoosegow for just shy of five years.
But it's what the cops did at the accident scene that'll be argued in Cook County Court next Monday. Mama Mejia's lawsuit contends that the sheriff's department officers who responded to the accident removed Jessica's body from the vehicle, removed all of her clothes except her panties, and photographed her nearly nude body as it lay on a tarp by the side of the road—all of which, Mrs. Mejia charges, is in violation of the sheriff's department's own rules.
"[People] think my 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," Mejia told the Chicago Tribune. "So the rumors, and the allegations ... they made it believable."
Although the police took some photos of Jessica's body while it was still in the car, as is common in accident investigations, they then removed the body from the car, took off her T-shirt, jeans, bra and high heels and spread her out on a tarp to take more photos—as is exceptionally uncommon in accident investigations.
"To see the way my daughter's body was handled, at the scene, was so confusing and so disturbing," Mrs. Mejia said. "I just didn't understand why they did that."
At first, the Sheriff's Department denied that any such photos existed, but once they surfaced, the department changed its tune. Spokeswoman Cara Smith then claimed that the officers acted appropriately, and only took the nearly nude photos to preserve evidence that later helped to convict the drunk driver.
"The family suffered an unimaginable loss, and the crime scene photos were taken as our officers investigated this crime and were instrumental in securing a conviction against the person responsible for this tragic death," Smith said. "In no way were these photos intended to cause harm to the family."
"I don't feel protected," said Mrs. Mejia, who was reportedly on the verge of tears when she was interviewed by the Tribune. "I feel violated."
"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," commented the Mejia family attorney, Don Perry.
