Prosecutors say deputies warned her months earlier that her 14-year-old son could not legally ride the vehicle on public streets.
SANTA ANA, CA — An Orange County mother has been charged after prosecutors said her 14-year-old son, riding a high-powered electric motorcycle near a Lake Forest high school, hit an 81-year-old substitute teacher and former Marine captain, leaving him in critical condition.
Authorities say the case has become the latest test of how far prosecutors will go in trying to hold parents responsible when children ride electric motorcycles that are treated under California law as motorcycles, not standard e-bikes. The crash left veteran teacher Ed Ashman hospitalized, drew renewed attention to the fast-growing use of off-road electric bikes on public streets, and added to a series of recent Orange County cases against parents whose children were allegedly allowed to ride such machines illegally.
Tommi Jo Mejer, 50, of Aliso Viejo, was charged with felony child endangerment and felony accessory after the fact, along with 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. Prosecutors said the case began around 4 p.m. on April 16, when sheriff’s deputies were sent to Toledo Way and Ridge Route Drive near El Toro High School after reports that a pedestrian had been hit by an electric motorcycle. Investigators said Mejer’s son was riding a 2025 Surron Ultra Bee in the street and doing wheelies when he struck Ashman, who was walking home from work. The rider left the scene after the collision, officials said. Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer later said the victim “is clinging to life,” as doctors continued treating Ashman for critical injuries.
Officials said the collision came after a warning that deputies gave Mejer months earlier. In June 2025, prosecutors said, Mejer called the Orange County Sheriff’s Department to complain that someone was posting photographs online of her then-13-year-old son riding an electric motorcycle. During what prosecutors described as a 28-minute conversation captured on body-worn camera, Mejer acknowledged that she had bought her son a Surron and knew he rode it recklessly. Deputies warned her, prosecutors said, that he could not legally ride the vehicle on public roads and that she could face criminal charges if she kept allowing it. Prosecutors also said that hours after the April crash, Mejer told deputies that neither she nor her son owned a Surron or had access to one. Authorities have not publicly detailed what the boy told investigators, and because he is a minor, prosecutors have not discussed any juvenile case that may be pending.
The case turns in part on the difference between an e-bike and what California treats as an electric motorcycle. Prosecutors said the Surron Ultra Bee involved in the crash was inspected by law enforcement and determined to be a motor-driven cycle or motorcycle for street-use purposes, not a bicycle. That matters because such vehicles require a valid motorcycle license, registration, license plates, insurance and full motorcycle equipment when operated on public roads. Prosecutors said the Ultra Bee is marketed as an off-road machine capable of speeds up to 58 mph and can accelerate from 0 to 31 mph in 2.3 seconds. They also said its peak output is 12.5 kilowatts, far beyond the legal power limits for an e-bike. Standard e-bikes, by contrast, fall into narrower classes and come with different rules. That distinction has become central for law enforcement agencies in Southern California as powerful battery-powered bikes have become more common on neighborhood streets, school routes and intersections.
The victim’s background has given the case added weight in Orange County. Prosecutors identified Ashman as an 81-year-old substitute teacher and a captain in the U.S. Marine Corps who flew combat missions in Vietnam. Local television reports described him as a well-known educator who was walking home from work when he was hit. By Wednesday, he remained hospitalized in critical condition. Spitzer, in announcing the charges, said parents who buy these machines for children and allow them to be ridden illegally are “handing their children a loaded weapon.” He said his office has filed child endangerment charges against three parents since January in cases involving children on e-motorcycles. One earlier case involved a Yorba Linda father whose 12-year-old son was badly hurt after running a red light on an electric motorcycle that prosecutors said had been modified to reach about 60 mph. The district attorney has argued that those cases show a wider pattern rather than isolated mistakes.
What comes next is clearer for the mother than for the boy. Mejer was arrested Tuesday at the Lamoreaux Justice Center in Orange, according to prosecutors, and faces a maximum sentence of six years and eight months in state prison if convicted on all counts. Senior Deputy District Attorney Noor Hasan of the Family Protection Unit is prosecuting the case. Officials have not said whether Mejer has entered a plea or identified an attorney who could speak for her. They also have not said whether the accessory charge is tied to statements made after the crash, the rider’s departure from the scene, or some other act investigators believe interfered with the case. Under California law, prosecutors said, they are barred from publicly identifying juveniles involved in criminal investigations or discussing those investigations in detail. That means key questions remain unanswered, including whether the teen has been accused in juvenile court, whether additional charges could follow if Ashman’s condition changes, and when the next major hearing in the mother’s case will occur.
Even with those open questions, the scene described by investigators is stark. It was the middle of the afternoon outside a high school, on streets where students, teachers and residents move through at the end of the school day. Deputies say a teenager was riding a machine built for off-road use, lifting its front wheel in traffic, when an elderly man walking home was struck and critically hurt. Neighbors and local news outlets later focused on Ashman’s long military service and his work in schools, while prosecutors returned again and again to the warning deputies said they had already delivered to the boy’s mother. “As parents, whether you like it or not, we’re responsible for the conduct of our children,” Spitzer said in a television interview. That argument is likely to stay at the center of the criminal case as prosecutors try to show that the danger was not only foreseeable, but spelled out in advance.
For now, Ashman remains hospitalized in critical condition, the teen’s juvenile status remains undisclosed, and the criminal case against Mejer is moving ahead in Orange County. The next milestone is her first public court appearance or arraignment date, which officials had not announced publicly by late Wednesday.
Author note: Last updated April 23, 2026.