{"id":619922,"date":"2026-05-02T21:11:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T21:11:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/619922\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T21:11:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T21:11:10","slug":"mom-faces-involuntary-manslaughter-after-sons-e-motorcycle-crash-kills-man-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/619922\/","title":{"rendered":"Mom faces involuntary manslaughter after son\u2019s e-motorcycle crash kills man | California"},"content":{"rendered":"

A southern California<\/a> woman is facing an additional charge of involuntary manslaughter after an 81-year-old man died from his injuries after being struck by the woman\u2019s teen son while he was riding an e-motorcycle, prosecutors said on Friday.<\/p>\n

On 16 April, Tommi Jo Mejer\u2019s 14-year-old son was riding a Surron e-motorcycle and doing wheelies when he hit Ed Ashman, according to prosecutors. Ashman, a former captain in the US Marine Corps, was walking home from his job as a substitute teacher at a high school in Lake Forest.<\/p>\n

He was critically injured and died on Thursday, and Mejer, of Aliso Viejo in Orange county, was charged with involuntary manslaughter as a result on top of a previous count of felony child endangerment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis 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,\u201d the Orange county district attorney, Todd Spitzer, said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Mejer has not yet appeared in court, and there was no public defender listed in records for her. The district attorney\u2019s office gave the Associated Press the name of a private attorney who may be representing Mejer; that person did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.<\/p>\n

Mejer was also charged with felony 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.<\/p>\n

In June 2025, prosecutors said, Mejer called the sheriff\u2019s department to complain that someone was posting pictures of her son riding the e-motorcycle. In an interaction with deputies that was recorded by body camera, she said she bought the vehicle and \u201cknew that he drove it recklessly\u201d.<\/p>\n

She was warned by deputies that she could face criminal charges for letting him ride it illegally, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n

A bike is classified as an e-motorcycle under state law if it has an electric motor with more than 750 watts of power or can reach speeds above 20mph (32km\/h) without having to pedal. Riders are required to be at least 16 years old and have a motorcycle license.<\/p>\n

The boy\u2019s e-motorcycle is the 2025 Surron Ultra Bee capable of reaching a top speed of 56mph (90km\/h), according to the manufacturer<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n

The district attorney\u2019s office said it could not discuss whether the boy will face prosecution because it is a juvenile case.<\/p>\n

Orange county prosecutors have filed child endangerment charges against three parents this year for letting children ride e-motorcycles illegally. And in Contra Costa county, in northern California, parents were charged after their child crashed into a minivan.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

But parental criminal liability in other circumstances has gained attention in recent years, especially in prosecutions and convictions related to shootings committed by minors.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a very new theory. There\u2019s not a long, robust history,\u201d Rosenthal said.<\/p>\n

In the cases involving shootings, prosecutors have to prove that the parent committed some act of \u201ccriminal negligence\u201d that led to a death, such as providing access to a gun, according to Rosenthal.<\/p>\n

However, the legal theories that were used might be more difficult to prove in e-motorcycle cases, Rosenthal said. Prosecutors will have to show that parents knew the risk of an e-motorcycle when letting their child ride one, and firearms represent a \u201cfar easier-to-grasp threat to human life\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs it reasonably foreseeable that a child\u2019s going to kill somebody?\u201d Rosenthal said.<\/p>\n

The Associated Press contributed reporting<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A southern California woman is facing an additional charge of involuntary manslaughter after an 81-year-old man died from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":619923,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-619922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=619922"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619922\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/619923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=619922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=619922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=619922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}