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Orange County prosecutors charged Tommi Jo Mejer with involuntary manslaughter after an 81-year-old man died from injuries sustained when he was struck by a Surron e-motorcycle her teen son was riding, according to prosecutors. The case centers on what prosecutors said were repeated warnings about the risks of an e-motorcycle being operated illegally by a teenager.
Prosecutors said the crash happened April 16 when Mejer’s 14-year-old son was riding the Surron e-motorcycle in Lake Forest and doing wheelies. They said Ed Ashman, a former captain in the U.S. Marine Corps, was walking home from his job as a substitute teacher at a high school when he was hit.
Ashman was critically injured, prosecutors said, and died Thursday. Prosecutors said Mejer, of Aliso Viejo in Orange County, was charged with involuntary manslaughter as a result of the collision, on top of a previous count of felony child endangerment.
Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said in a statement, “This mother essentially handed her 14-year-old son a deadly weapon, and despite multiple warnings of the dangers, continued to let him illegally ride an e-motorcycle until he finally killed someone.” Prosecutors also said Mejer has not yet appeared in court.
Records reviewed by The Associated Press did not list a public defender for Mejer. The district attorney’s office provided AP with the name of a private attorney who may represent Mejer, but that person did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment, AP reported.
In addition to the involuntary manslaughter charge, Mejer was charged with felony accessory after the fact and misdemeanor counts including contributing to the delinquency of a minor and providing false information to an officer. Prosecutors said that in June 2025 Mejer contacted the Sheriff’s Department to complain that someone was posting pictures of her son riding the e-motorcycle.
Prosecutors said that during an interaction with deputies recorded by body camera, Mejer told investigators she bought the vehicle and “knew that he drove it recklessly.” Prosecutors said deputies warned her she could face criminal charges for letting him ride the vehicle illegally.
Under California law, a bike is classified as an e-motorcycle if it has an electric motor with more than 750 watts of power or can reach speeds above 20 mph (32 kph) without having to pedal. Prosecutors said riders are required to be at least 16 years old and have a motorcycle license, and the manufacturer of the Surron e-motorcycle in question lists it as capable of 56 mph (90 kph) speeds.
Prosecutors also said that in the hours after the April collision, Mejer told deputies that neither she nor her son owned a Surron e-motorcycle or had access to one. The district attorney’s office said it could not discuss whether the boy will face prosecution because it is a juvenile case.
Orange County prosecutors have filed child endangerment charges against three parents this year for letting children ride e-motorcycles illegally, the AP report said. In nearby Contra Costa County, prosecutors filed charges after a child crashed into a minivan.
Law professor Lawrence Rosenthal of Chapman University said prosecutions of parents in these situations have drawn attention in recent years, pointing to criminal cases involving shootings committed by minors. Rosenthal said that in those shootings, prosecutors generally have to prove that a parent committed some act of “criminal negligence” that led to a death, such as providing access to a gun.
Rosenthal said e-motorcycle cases may be more difficult to prove under similar standards, adding that prosecutors would need to show parents knew the risk of an e-motorcycle when letting a child ride one. He said firearms represent a “far easier-to-grasp threat to human life,” and he questioned the foreseeability at the core of the legal theory by saying, “Is it reasonably foreseeable that a child’s going to kill somebody?”