Mom faces involuntary manslaughter after son’s e-motorcycle crash kills man | California

A Southern California woman faces an additional charge of involuntary manslaughter after an 81-year-old man died from his injuries after being struck by the woman’s teenage son while riding an electric motorcycle, prosecutors said Friday.

On April 16, Tommi Jo Mejer’s 14-year-old son was riding a Surron electric motorcycle and doing wheelies when he struck Ed Ashman, according to prosecutors. Ashman, a former captain in the U.S. Marine Corps, was returning home from his job as a substitute teacher at a Lake Forest high school.

He was seriously injured and died Thursday, and Mejer, of Aliso Viejo in Orange County, was charged with involuntary manslaughter, in addition to a previous count of child endangerment.

“This mother essentially handed her 14-year-old son a deadly weapon and, despite multiple warnings about the dangers, continued to let him illegally ride an electric motorcycle until he eventually killed someone,” Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said in a statement.

Mejer has yet to appear in court and no public defender was listed for her. The prosecutor’s office gave The Associated Press the name of a private attorney who could represent Mejer; that person did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

Mejer was also charged with accessory after the fact and misdemeanor counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and providing false information to an officer. She could be sentenced to up to seven years and eight months in prison if convicted on all counts, prosecutors said.

In June 2025, prosecutors said, Mejer called the sheriff’s department to complain that someone was posting photos of her son riding the electric motorcycle. In an interaction with deputies recorded on a body camera, she said she purchased the vehicle and “knew he was driving it recklessly.”

She was warned by deputies that she could face criminal charges for letting him ride illegally, prosecutors said.

A bicycle is classified as an electric motorcycle under state law if it has an electric motor with more than 750 watts of power or can reach speeds greater than 20 mph (32 km/h) without having to pedal. Riders must be at least 16 years old and have a motorcycle license.

The boy’s electric motorcycle is the Surron Ultra Bee 2025 capable of reaching a top speed of 56 mph (90 km/h), according to the manufacturer.

In the hours after the April collision, Mejer told deputies that neither she nor her son owned or had access to a Surron electric motorcycle, prosecutors said.

The prosecutor’s office said it could not discuss whether the boy would face charges because it is a juvenile case.

Orange County prosecutors filed child endangerment charges this year against three parents for letting children illegally ride electric motorcycles. And in Northern California’s Contra Costa County, parents were charged after their child crashed into a minivan.

In the past, prosecutions of parents were typically seen in truancy cases since the law specifically mentions their liability, said Lawrence Rosenthal, a law professor at Chapman University.

But parental criminal liability in other circumstances has gained attention in recent years, notably in prosecutions and convictions related to shootings committed by minors.

“This is a very new theory. There isn’t a long, solid history,” Rosenthal said.

In cases involving shootings, prosecutors must prove that the parent committed an act of “criminal negligence” that resulted in death, such as providing access to a gun, according to Rosenthal.

However, the legal theories used might be harder to prove in electric motorcycle cases, Rosenthal said. Prosecutors will have to show that parents knew the risk of an electric motorcycle when they let their child ride one, and that guns pose a “much more easily captured threat to human life.”

“Is it reasonably foreseeable that a child would kill someone?” Rosenthal said.

The Associated Press contributed report