Bail not revoked in fatal DUI case
BY Lauren fitzPatrick Sun-Times Media January 31, 2012 10:40PM
Nicholas Sord (right), who is charged in a fatal drunken driving crash that killed his ex-girlfriend, Jessica Mejia, leaves the courtroom with father Bryan Sord (left) after a bond hearing at the Markham Courthouse Tuesday. | Joseph P. Meier~Sun-Times Med
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Updated: March 2, 2012 8:22AM
An Orland Park man accused in a fatal drunken driving crash walked out of court Tuesday after proving that the opiates in his body came from a prescribed painkiller.
Cook County prosecutors last week had sought to revoke the bail of Nicholas Sord, son of Southland businessman Bryan Sord, saying a pretrial drug test indicated that he had opiates in his body in late December.
But Assistant State’s Attorney Nick D’Angelo changed his mind Tuesday, saying he was satisfied that Sord was taking hydrocodone on a doctor’s prescription after having surgery on his left hand.
Sord, 24, faces charges of aggravated DUI and reckless homicide in connection with a crash on 147th Street near Oak Park Avenue in the early morning hours of Dec. 31, 2009, that killed his former girlfriend, Jessica Mejia, of New Lenox.
Sord, who’s set to return Feb. 16 to the county courthouse in Markham, crashed because Mejia, 20, distracted him while he was driving, defense attorney Jeff Aprati said after the hearing.
Aprati told the judge he plans to have independent testing of blood and hair evidence taken from the Mercedes SUV that Sord was driving.
Mejia’s family is suing Sord, the family restaurants he works for and the bars where he allegedly was drinking that night. They also filed suit against Cook County sheriff’s police, saying officers took inappropriate photos of a naked Mejia at the crash scene.
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