The mother of a 14-year-old accused of hitting and serious injuring an 81-year-old Vietnam veteran while doing wheelies on an e-motorcycle in Lake Forest has been charged with felony child endangerment after prosecutors allege she was previously warned about the dangers of allowing her son to recklessly ride the bike.
Tommi Jo Mejer, 50, of Aliso Viejo is also facing a felony count of being an accessory after the fact to a crime and misdemeanor counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, loaning a motor vehicle to an unlicensed driver, and providing false information to a peace officer following the Thursday, April 16 collision that has left the victim still hospitalized in critical condition, according to an Orange County District Attorney’s Office statement.
Similar charges were filed last month against a Yorba Linda father whose 12-year-old son was seriously injured when the boy allegedly ran a red light and was hit by a car while riding an e-motorcycle that had been illegally modified to go up to 50 miles per hour. The high-profile incidents — involving parents prosecutors say had been explicitly warned about the dangers of e-motorcycles — come as local leaders and law enforcement across Southern California are trying to catch up with the safety concerns surrounding increasingly popular electric bicycles and motorcycles.
“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,” Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said in a statement. “That is not a threat. That is a promise.
“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 and he was run over in the street by a vehicle that should have never been on the road. … There is absolutely no reason that an unlicensed, untrained child with no concept of the rules of the road should be riding a motorcycle that can go up to nearly 60 miles per hour next to cars on a public street and think that by some miracle they are going to be safe,” the DA added.
Prosecutors allege that Mejer’s teenage son was doing wheelies on a 2025 Surron Ultra Bee e-motorcycle in the middle of the roadway at Toledo Way and Ridge Route Drive when he struck Ed Ashman, a substitute teacher who during the Vietnam War served as a captain in the United States Marine Corps and flew combat missions. Ashman was walking home from nearby El Toro High School when he was struck.
The e-motorcyclist fled before police arrived. But investigators, with the help of witnesses to the crash, identified the 14-year-old as the suspected rider and took him into custody.
Mejer, the boy’s mother, was arrested on Tuesday, April 21, prosecutors said. According to court records, she has since been released on bond. She could not be reached immediately for comment, and it wasn’t clear from court records whether she has hired or been assigned an attorney.
Mejer is scheduled to appear in court for an initial appearance on May 21. If convicted as charged, she faces up to six years and eight months in state prison.
According to prosecutors, Mejer, in June 2025, called the Orange County Sheriff’s Department to report that someone had posted photos of her then-13-year old son riding an e-motorcycle. In a nearly half-hour talk with deputies that was captured on a body-worn camera, prosecutors say, Mejer admitted buying her son a Surron e-motorcycle and knowing that he drove it recklessly.
The deputies warned Mejer that her son could not legally ride the e-motorcycle, and that she could face potential criminal charges if she allowed him to continue to use it, prosecutors said.
Hours after last week’s collision, prosecutors added, Mejer told deputies that neither she nor her teenage son owned a Surron E-motorcycle or had access to one, in a conversation that was also captured on a sheriff’s body camera.
According to the DA’s Office, the Surron Ultra Bee is marketed as an off-road e-motorcycle and is capable of traveling at speeds of up to 58 mph with a peak power that is 16 times more powerful than what is legally allowed for an e-bike. Riders on streets or highways are required to be 16 years of age and have a motorcycle license. Otherwise, e-motorcycles can only be used on private property or in designated off-road areas.
Due to his age, prosecutors under state law are unable to discuss whether they are pursuing charges against the son, DA spokeswoman Kimberly Edds said.
As the law enforcement investigation into the crash continues, community members have rallied around Ashman, who supporters described as a steady and supportive campus presence who brought his dedication to service from the military to the classroom. Family members have remained by his side as he recovers at a hospital, while a GoFundMe page created on his behalf had raised more than $80,000 as of late Wednesday morning, April 22.
District Attorney Spitzer, in his statement, said limitations in state law on charging minors has led his office to target parents.
“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 (damage) 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 said.
The popularity of e-bikes has soared since the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving lawmakers and law enforcement scrambling to regulate bikes that are often used by young riders ignorant or disdainful of the rules of the road. The number of e-bike crashes in the state have risen dramatically as well, from 48 reported in 2020 to at least 1,366 in 2025, according to California Highway Patrol statistics.