O.C. teen’s mother faces manslaughter charge in e-motorbike crash that killed 81-year-old

Ed Ashman, 81, died Thursday, two weeks after a 14-year-old boy doing wheelies on an e-motorcycle near a high school hit him, causing critical injuries, the Orange County District Attorney’s office said.

Ashman, a Vietnam veteran and captain with the U.S. Marine Corps, had been walking home from his job as a substitute teacher at the school.

The boy’s mother, Tommi Jo Mejer, 50, of Aliso Viejo, was arrested days after the accident and charged with child endangerment, accessory after the fact, contributing to the delinquency of a minor and providing false information to a peace officer.

After Ashman died, prosecutors added an involuntary manslaughter charge. She faces up to seven years and eight months in prison if convicted on all counts, prosecutors said.

Orange County sheriff’s deputies had previously warned Mejer that she could end up being charged criminally if she allowed her son to ride an electronic motorcycle. The devices require a motorcycle license to use, and riders must also be 16 or older. The boy’s electric motorcycle was a 2025 Surron Ultra Bee, advertised by Surron as capable of reaching a top speed of 56 mph.

Orange County Dist. Atty. Todd Spitzer has vowed to prosecute parents who allow their children to ride e-motorcycles, or modify e-bikes to function as such, calling the devices a “loaded weapon.” Mejer is the third parent Spitzer’s office has charged this year for allowing their children to ride electric motorcycles illegally.

“An American hero who survived flying combat missions in Vietnam could not survive walking across the street in Lake Forest because of a 14-year-old child who was allowed to ride an E-Motorcycle that he should have never been riding,” Spitzer said in a statement. “If parents aren’t going to hold their children accountable, then I am going to hold parents accountable for hurting and killing innocent people while riding illegal motor vehicles.”