E-motorcycle crash puts parents in prosecutors' crosshairs

An Aliso Viejo mother faces felony charges after her 14-year-old son allegedly struck and critically injured an 81-year-old Vietnam veteran while performing wheelies on an electric motorcycle in Lake Forest, prosecutors said Wednesday, in a case underscoring Orange County's effort to hold parents criminally liable for minors operating illegal e-motorcycles.

Tommi Jo Mejer, 50, was arrested Tuesday by the Orange County Sheriff's Department at the Lamoreaux Justice Center in Orange and faces up to six years and eight months in state prison if convicted on all counts, according to the Orange County District Attorney's Office. People v. Mejer, 26HF1029, (O.C. Super., Ct., filed April 16, 2026)

The case is one of several prosecutions so far this year under District Attorney Todd Spitzer's initiative targeting adults who let minors ride illegal electric motorcycles on public roads.

"Parents who buy their child an E-motorcycle and let them ride them illegally or help modify e-Bikes to transform them into E-motorcycles are handing their children a loaded weapon - and those parents are going to be prosecuted. That is not a threat. That is a promise," Spitzer said.

"This 81-year-old man survived flying combat missions in Vietnam protecting freedom and now he is clinging to life because a mother refused to parent her child. He was run over in the street by a vehicle that should have never been on the road," Spitzer continued.

In addition to two felony counts, Mejer is charged with one misdemeanor count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, one misdemeanor count of loaning a motor vehicle to an unlicensed driver and one misdemeanor count of providing false information to a peace officer.

The charges stem from an April 16 collision near El Toro High School, where deputies responded to a report of a pedestrian struck by an electric motorcycle. The victim, 81-year-old Ed Ashman, a substitute teacher and retired U.S. Marine Corps captain who flew combat missions in Vietnam, remains hospitalized in critical condition. Prosecutors said Mejer's son fled the scene.

A law enforcement inspection of the 2025 Sur-Ron Ultra Bee confirmed it's not a bicycle--it's either a motor-driven cycle under the California Vehicle Code or a full motorcycle. In both cases, you legally need a valid motorcycle license, DMV registration, a license plate, insurance, and full street-legal motorcycle equipment to ride it on public roads.

Absent those requirements, prosecutors said the vehicle may be operated only on private property or in properly designated off-highway vehicle areas.

The Sur-Ron Ultra Bee is marketed as an off-road electric motorcycle with a top speed of 58 mph and acceleration from 0 to 31 mph in 2.3 seconds. Its 12.5-kilowatt peak output is 16 times more powerful than what California law permits for an electric bicycle.

Prosecutors allege Mejer was warned about the risks and ignored them.

In June 2025, prosecutors said she called the Sheriff's Department to complain that someone was posting photos of her then-13-year-old son riding an electric motorcycle. In a 28-minute body-camera-recorded exchange, she admitted she bought him the Sur-Ron and that he rode it recklessly.

Deputies warned her that letting him continue to ride could expose her to criminal liability. Yet hours after the April 16 collision, prosecutors allege, Mejer told deputies that neither she nor her son owned or had access to a Sur-Ron.

California law distinguishes electric bicycles from electric motorcycles by motor power, top speed and operable pedals. Class 1 and 2 e-bikes have no age or licensing requirements, while Class 3 riders must be at least 16.

Modifications that push an e-bike past wattage or speed thresholds, strip it of its e-bike designation. Riders of such vehicles must be at least 16 and hold a motorcycle license.

The Mejer case follows a January filing against a Yorba Linda father whose 12-year-old son was critically injured after running a red light on an electric motorcycle modified to reach 60 mph.

Prosecutors said the father and son had been warned about the dangers of illegal e-motorcycle use before the crash. In January 2025, Richard Eyssallenne took his 12-year-old son and 10-year-old son to an e-bike safety presentation hosted by Yorba Linda Police Services.

In July 2025, Eyssallenne's 12-year-old son ran a red light and was struck by a car while illegally riding a heavily modified e-bike. The boy sustained serious injuries, including a concussion, intracranial bleed, skull fracture, broken wrist and fractured femur.

Eyssallenne faces up to six years in state prison if convicted on all counts. People v. Eyssallenne, 26NF0820, (O.C. Super., Ct., filed Mar. 03, 2026)

Similar incidents have been reported across California. In March, Contra Costa County prosecutors charged a Benicia mother and father with child abuse after a crash in which their son slammed an e-moto into a minivan.

On Sept. 18, officers responding to a collision in Walnut Creek near De La Salle High School found a teenage boy with severe injuries after he had been riding a Sur-Ron Light Bee e-moto at high speed without a license, police said.

His father, Steven Leroy Crews, and mother, Jeanna Marie Gabellini, both 58, each face one misdemeanor count for repeatedly allowing their child to ride the e-moto from age 14 to 17 despite citations and warnings from law enforcement. People v. Steven Leroy Crews, 01-25-04762 (Contra Costa County Super. Ct., filed Dec. 29, 2025); People v. Jeanna Marie Gabellini, 01-25-04777 (Contra Costa County Super. Ct., filed Dec. 29, 2025)

District Attorney Diana Becton said in a statement that parents "must understand the dangers these vehicles pose to children if operated unlawfully and without proper driver education."

Earlier this year in Davis, a 16-year-old on an e-bike struck and killed a 60-year-old nurse. In Burlingame, a couple is suing the family of an 11-year-old e-bike rider after he crashed into a van, triggering a chain-reaction wreck last summer that killed their 4-year-old son.

In January, during a high-visibility enforcement operation near Crossroads Shopping Center, a motor sergeant spotted a 14-year-old riding an illegal Sur-Ron electric motorcycle while wearing a standard bicycle helmet, the Irvine Police Department said. The rider fled at high speed when the sergeant attempted a stop.

Irvine police deployed drones to track the teen to a nearby apartment community, where he continued riding the e-moto. After inspecting the bike, officers determined it could reach a top speed of 98-mph. The rider was cited, and the bike was impounded.

"The state Legislature has made it virtually impossible for prosecutors to hold juveniles accountable for committing serious crimes, and the only way to stop the carnage E-Bikes and E-motorcycles are causing across Orange County is to hold parents accountable for the crimes they allow their children to commit," Spitzer added.

Mejer is scheduled to be arraigned on May 21.