text: Sheriff's deputies undressed the body of a 20-year-old car crash victim  then took inappropriate nude photos of her  at the side of the road, her mother has claimed. Christina Mejia first outlined her accusations in a lawsuit filed against the Cook County Sheriff's Office in Illinois in 2010 and the trial is scheduled to begin next week. Her daughter, Jessica Mejia, was killed in the early hours of December 31, 2009 when her ex-boyfriend, Nicholas Sord, lost control of the car they were traveling in and smashed into a pole. When deputies arrived on the scene, they improperly removed clothing from Mejia's dead body and took photographs of her, according to the lawsuit. Scroll down for video . Heartbroken: Christina Mejia is pictured talking about her daughter Jessica, who was killed in a car crash in 2009. She is suing the responding deputies for stripping her daughter nearly naked and taking photos . Loss: Jessica Mejia, 20, was killed when her drunk ex-boyfriend smashed their car into a pole in 2009 . The young woman had been wearing a white t-shirt, jeans and high-heeled shoes but was photographed wearing just her lower undergarment, according to the Chicago Tribune. By doing so, the deputies intentionally caused emotional distress to the victim's family, they say. '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,' family attorney Don Perry told the Tribune. Mrs Mejia added that the photos had left her feeling 'violated' and she accused the deputies' actions of perpetuating  false rumors that the car had crashed because her daughter was on top of Sord. '(People) think my daughter died from having sex, not from somebody being drunk and killing her,' the heartbroken mother told the Tribune. 'By the time everybody else got to the scene... she was partially naked because they made her naked. So the rumors, and the allegations... they made it believable.' But the sheriff's office insisted that it took the photographs at the scene in order to gather evidence that ultimately helped to convict Sord. They called the images 'standard operating procedure'. Locked up: Nicholas Sord, left, was sentenced to 56 months in prison for the deadly crash. Mejia's family filed a lawsuit against the sheriff's office for taking the photos and the trial will begin next week . '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,' spokeswoman Cara Smith said. 'In no way were these photos intended to cause harm to the family.' Sord, whose blood alcohol level was .236 per cent when he smashed his Mercedes SUV into a pole, pleaded guilty to drunken driving last fall and was sentenced to 56 months in prison. Sord was a business partner with former Chicago Blackhawks player Denis Savard and is the son of Bryan Sord, a prominent developer and restaurateur. He and Mejia had dated but had broken up months before the crash. Mejia was studying psychology at the University of Illinois at Chicago when she died.
target: Jessica Mejia, 20, died when her drunk ex-boyfriend smashed their car into a pole in Cook County, Illinois in December 2009 .
  Sheriff's deputies improperly undressed the young woman's body at the scene and took photographs of her, according to her mother's lawsuit .
  But the sheriff's office says it was necessary to take the photographs in order to preserve evidence that ultimately put the ex-boyfriend behind bars .
  The case goes to trial next week .