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The Cook County Sheriff’s police are accused of removing the clothes and photographing a DUI crash victim on the side of the road in plain sight of onlookers without justification. Jessica Mejia was killed in a car crash on New Year’s Eve 2009 near Oak Forest. Her ex-boyfriend, Nicholas Sord, is charged with reckless homicide and DUI. Sord allegedly had a BAC of .236 when he drove his Mercedes SUV into a pole. He is currently awaiting trial on the criminal charges.

The family of Jessica Mejia filed the suit against the police, claiming severe and extreme distress due to the inappropriate photos that were taken on the scene. The family seeks more than $200,000. The Cook County sheriff’s department denies the allegations.

Suit: Cops took nude photos of DUI crash victim, suntimes.com, December 30, 2010

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Eric Barth, 21, has been charged with six counts of aggravated DUI and accused of causing a three-vehicle crash in Kane County. Barth was driving a Chevy pickup truck when he allegedly veered into the opposite lane of traffic and crashed head-on into a GMC Yukon SUV. A Hyundai Sonata was unable to avoid the collision and crashed into the two vehicles. Investigators believe the icy road conditions may have contributed.

The two occupants of the GMC Yukon – a 64-year-old man and 69-year-old woman – were taken to an Elgin hospital where they were both listed in critical condition. Barth was treated at the hospital and then arrested. The passengers of the Hyundai were treated and released in stable condition.

Barth was also cited with several traffic violations, including driving without a drivers license. His BAC was more than three times the legal limit at .27.

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Brandon Reed, 23, has been charged with misdemeanor DUI after a crash in Chicago that left one female passenger dead and a 4-year-old boy injured. Reed was also ticketed for driving on a revoked license.

Reed was traveling on the 1600 block of West Harrison Street in Chicago when his vehicle crashed into a pole. Passenger Angeline De-Leon, 25, was pronounced dead at Stroger Hospital. The 4-year-old boy was taken to Stroger Hospital after going into shock. Reed was also taken to the hospital in critical condition.

According to officials, witnesses allegedly heard the boy yell out of a window, “slow down dad,” shortly before the vehicle crashed. The accident remains under investigation and Chicago Police say the charges against Reed may be upgraded.

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Aileen Beernink faces a potential prison sentence after her third arrest for Driving Under the Influence of alcohol. She is also accused of driving with a revoked or suspended license, driving under the influence of drugs and driving without insurance.

Beernink was spotted by a patrol officer driving with her headlights off. The officer determined she was under the influence of an unspecified narcotic and had an invalid drivers license.

Beernink was previously arrested on June 18 on two counts of DUI and multiple traffic offenses. Court records show she was placed on a year of court supervision and assessed over $2300 in fines and legal cost in that case. She was also arrested in 2008 by Naperville police in separate cases involving drug charges and driving too fast for conditions. Beernink was ticketed in 2009 for driving without headlights and earlier this year for driving too fast for conditions. She is also the defendant in a civil lawsuit filed in August where she is accused of damaging a man’s vehicle during a traffic crash.

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Elisha Clark, 25, of Grayslake was pronounced dead at the scene after a high speed DUI related crash.

Donald Mischke, 54, was fleeing police after allegedly breaking into a Target store and stealing a flat screen television set. Mischke allegedly used his vehicle to ram the front door of the Target store just enough to break in. The officer who spotted Mischke loading the television into his car tried to stop his car near the store but the defendant drove off at a high rate of speed. The officer stopped her persuit when the defendant turned onto a road with heavy traffic. Mischke allegedly ran a red light at Belvidere Road in Waukegan, striking the driver side of Clark’s vehicle.

Mischke was charged with driving under the influence of drugs after his blood tested positive for cocaine. Mischke previously lost his driver’s license after a 1994 DUI conviction and he has been convicted of driving on a revoked license three times.

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Scott Rossow of Palos Hills was convicted on November 29, 2010 of Aggravated DUI in connection with a one-car collision that killed his two passengers in 2006.

Rossow was allegedly driving in excess of 100 mph on St Francis Road when he left the roadway and hit a tree in the early morning hours of December 8, 2006. Rossow and his two passengers were ejected from the vehicle. Passengers Christopher C. Sommers, a longtime friend and petty officer third class in the U.S. Coast Guard, and Rossow’s step brother, Davis Sauseda, died at the scene.

Rossow’s defense attorney attempted to argue that Rossow was not driving the car. Evidence from a highly technical reconstruction report was used to prove who was responsible for the crash.

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Luis Benito, 17, has been charged with four counts of aggravated DUI and reckless homicide and could face up to 14 years each on the two most serious counts against him. Judge Marzell Richardson set his bond at $1 million dollars.

Benito had allegedly been drinking at a nightclub, Rancho Santa Fe. Shortly before the crash, Benito was seen doing “donuts” in the Bolingbrook nightclub’s parking lot. After a bouncer from Rancho Santa Fe pointed his flashlight at Benito, the teen allegedly drove the 2002 Chevy Blazer directly at him, forcing him to dodge the vehicle.

At around 2:30 a.m., Benito and another passenger headed home, deciding to park between two apartment buildings because the main parking lots were full. However, the SUV allegedly sped through a garden-level apartment window fatally crushing Josephina Prospero. Prospero, 46, who was asleep in her bed was pronounced dead at the scene. Benito’s mother and Prospero worked together at a local hotel and were friends.

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Jeremiah Thompson, 36, has been charged with DUI and other violations for a hit-and-run that resulted in the death of a 35-year old woman.

Yasha Hicks was allegedly struck and killed as she walked near 73rd and South Racine. Thompson reportedly took off after the accident and left Hicks in the roadway. Hicks was pronounced dead at Christ Advocate Medical Center in Oak Lawn.

Police later caught up with Thompson charged him with Aggravated DUI-accident resulting in death, DUI with a blood alcohol content above 0.08, failure to reduce speed, improper lane usage, failure to take due care with pedestrian in roadway, and operating a vehicle without insurance.

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22-year-old, Doreen Cardenas, and a 22-year-old man she was with were rushed to the hospital after being struck by a car in an early morning hit and run in North Aurora. Cardenas was pronounced dead at Provena-Mercy Hospital at 2:35 a.m. The man remained hospitalized but his condition was not made available.

The couple were standing outside the driver’s side of Cardena’s parked 1997 Chevrolet Cavalier when a vehicle allegedly side-swiped the car and struck them. A bystander found the two victims lying in the street at 42 S Grant Street.

At approximately 5 a.m., Lee Roy Patterson, a 30-year-old Aurora man, walked into the Aurora Police department and turned himself in. Patterson has been charged with leaving the scene of a motor vehicle accident involving a death, an additional count of leaving the scene where a person was injured, and failing to reduce speed to avoid an accident. Patterson faces a Class 1 felony which is punishable by up to 15 years in prison.

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Wade Miquelon, Chief Financial Officer for Walgreen Co., appeared in Skokie courthouse to face drunken driving charges after his second DUI in just over a year.

Miquelon was pulled over September 25 just after 10 p.m. for having a taillight out. He was allegedly driving on a suspended license. Miquelon was arrested after allegedly failing a field sobriety test and refusing a Breathalyzer test. He was later released on a $3000 bond.

Miquelon lost his license for a year after refusing a Breathalyzer test during his first 2009 DUI arrest. This suspension is also known as a statutory summary suspension. It is possible that his license will be suspended for as long as three years for refusing the Breathalyzer on this current case.

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