SANTA ANA, Calif. – An Aliso Viejo mother repeatedly warned of the dangers of continuing to allow her 14-year-old son to illegally ride an E-motorcycle has had her charges of child endangerment upgraded to include involuntary manslaughter after the 81-year-old Vietnam veteran critically injured when he was hit by the boy doing wheelies on an E-motorcycle in Lake Forest died.
Eighty-one-year-old Ed Ashman died yesterday afternoon, a week after being hit by the E-motorcycle while walking home from his job as a substitute teacher at El Toro High School.
Since January, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office has filed child endangerment charges against three parents for allowing their children to illegally ride E-motorcycles, including against a Yorba Linda father whose 12-year-old son was critically injured after he ran a red light and was hit by a car while riding an E-motorcycle which had been modified to go up to 60 miles per hour, after the boy and his father had been warned about the dangers of children riding E-motorcycles illegally. He faces a maximum sentence of six years in state prison if convicted on all counts.
Tommi Jo Mejer, 50, of Aliso Viejo, was previously been charged with one felony count of child endangerment, one felony count of accessory after the fact to a crime, 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.
Today, in an amended complaint, Mejer is now charged with one felony count of involuntary manslaughter in connection with the death of Ed Ashman, one felony count of child endangerment, one felony count of accessory after the fact to a crime, one misdemeanor count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, one misdemeanor count of providing false information to a peace officer, and an infraction for permitting an unlicensed minor under the age of 18 to drive a motor vehicle. She faces a maximum sentence of seven years and eight months in state prison if convicted on all counts.
She is scheduled to be arraigned on May 21, 2026, at the Harbor Justice Center in Newport Beach in Department H1.
Mejer was arrested by the Orange County Sheriff’s Department on April 21, 2026, at the Lamoreaux Justice Center in Orange.
On Thursday, April 16, 2026, around 4 p.m., Orange County Sheriff’s deputies were called to respond to Toledo Way and Ridge Route Drive, which borders El Toro High School, for a pedestrian hit by an E-motorcycle.
The victim, later identified as Ed Ashman, an 81-year-old substitute teacher and captain in the United States Marine Corps who flew combat missions in Vietnam, was critically injured after being hit by a teenage boy doing wheelies in the middle of the street. The rider of the Surron E-motorcycle left the scene of the collision.
In June 2025, Mejer called the Orange County Sheriff’s Department to complain that someone was posting pictures of her then-13-year-old son riding an E-motorcycle. During a 28-minute interaction with two Orange County Sheriff’s deputies captured on body worn camera, Mejer admitted that she purchased her son a Surron E-motorcycle and knew that he drove it recklessly. The deputies warned her that she could face potential criminal charges if she continued to allow him to ride the E-motorcycle which he could not legally ride.
Riders of E-motorcycles must be 16 years of age and possess a motorcycle license.
A law enforcement inspection of the 2025 Surron Ultra Bee, the vehicle involved in last week’s collision, revealed the vehicle is classified as a motor-driven cycle under CVC section 405 or a motorcycle under CVC section 400. Both classifications require a valid motorcycle license for street operation, as well as DMV registration, license plate, insurance and full motorcycle equipment. Without complying with these requirements, the only approved use of this E-motorcycle is either on private property or properly registered as Off-Highway Vehicle (OHV) areas.
The Surron Ultra Bee is marketed as an off-road E-motorcycle capable of going up to speeds of 58 miles per hour and accelerating from 0-31 miles per hour in 2.3 seconds. With a peak power of 12.5kW, the output of a Surron Ultra Bee is 16 times more powerful than what is legally allowed for an e-Bike.
Hours after the collision, Mejer is seen on body worn camera repeatedly telling Orange County Sheriff’s deputies investigating the injury crash that neither she nor her teenage son own a Surron or have access to one.
California law distinguishes between e-Bikes and E-motorcycles based on three main features: the power limit of its motor, its maximum speed limit, and whether it is equipped with operable pedals. Electric bicycles with Class 1 or Class 2 designations do not have rider age or licensing restrictions; e-Bikes with Class 3 designations require riders to be aged 16 or older.
Generally, an electric bike that does not qualify as Class 1, 2 or 3, will be classified as an electric motorcycle. That means either that the bike has an electric motor that exceeds 750 watts of power or can reach speeds higher than 20-mph on motor power alone. Additionally, if the bike is not equipped with fully operable pedals, or if it has been modified to reach speeds higher than 20-mph or to attain power higher than 750 watts, the bike cannot be designated an electric bike and instead would be considered an E-motorcycle.
Per Welfare and Institutions Code Sections 827 and 828, the District Attorney’s Office is prohibited from disclosing the name of juveniles involved in criminal investigations or discussing juvenile investigations.
“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,” said Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer. “This 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. This is a tragedy for the family of Ed Ashman and for everyone who loved a man who committed himself to his country and his community, and it is a tragedy for our society that we have gotten to a point where parents are refusing to hold their children – and themselves – accountable for endangering the lives of other people. 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.”
Senior Deputy District Attorney Noor Hasan of the Family Protection Unit is prosecuting this case.
Full press release: https://bit.ly/4tNVpTn
RIP Ed Ashman
1945 – 2026