OC girl riding an e-motorcycle injured an 81-year-old man. The child’s mother is now facing charges

An Aliso Viejo mother is the latest Orange County parent to face criminal charges related to her child’s use of an electric motorcycle, as prosecutors vow to continue cracking down on parents who allow teenagers to illegally ride such powerful vehicles.

Tommi Jo Mejer, 50, was arrested this week after investigators linked her 14-year-old son to an e-motorcycle crash that seriously injured an 81-year-old man on April 16, according to a news release from the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.

Months before the accident, Mejer had been “warned of the dangers of continuing to allow her middle school son to ride an illegal motorcycle,” and the possible consequences, Orange County prosecutors said.

Her son is accused of “wheeling” his e-motorcycle in the middle of the road near El Toro High School in Lake Forest when he hit an 81-year-old man, who prosecutors say was a Vietnam War veteran and worked as a substitute teacher. The suspect remains hospitalized and is in critical condition, according to prosecutors.

Mejer is now charged with child endangerment and felony accessory after the fact, as well as misdemeanor counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, lending a vehicle to an unlicensed driver and giving false information to an officer. At this time it was not clear what criminals, if any, were charged with his unknown son because he is still young.

If convicted of all charges, Mejer faces a maximum sentence of six years in state prison.

Orange County. He said. Todd Spitzer said state law has made it “almost impossible for prosecutors to hold children accountable,” so his office is targeting parents. Juveniles in the US are subject to a different justice system, which focuses more on rehabilitation than the adult system, due to the continuing development of children.

“Parents who buy their children an e-motorcycle and allow them to ride it illegally or help convert e-bikes to e-motorcycles are handing their children a loaded weapon — and those parents will be prosecuted,” Spitzer said in a statement. “There is absolutely no reason that a child without a license, who is not trained and does not know the rules of the road should ride a motorcycle that can go about 60 kilometers per hour next to cars on a public road and think that by some miracle they will be safe.”

About a year ago, Mejer came into contact with Orange County deputies after someone posted photos of his then-13-year-old son riding a motorcycle, according to prosecutors. At the time, Mejer told deputies he bought his son a Surron Ultra Bee electric motorcycle and “knew he was driving it recklessly,” according to body-worn camera footage reviewed by prosecutors. At the time, deputies “warned him that he could face criminal charges if he continued to allow him to ride an e-motorcycle, which he cannot legally ride,” the release said.

After the April 16 crash involving a Surron motorcycle, Mejer was captured on body-worn camera footage telling deputies that neither he nor his teenage son had or had access to such a Surron, the release said. Deputies who responded to the crash said the driver of the e-motorcycle left the scene.

Surron motorcycles are advertised online as having “the ride of a bike, with the torque and power of an off-road motorcycle.” It is marketed as an off-road dirt bike, capable of reaching 60 mph, according to the website.

Riders of these e-motorcycles must be 16 years old and have a motorcycle license, prosecutors said.

Mejer is the third parent this year charged by Orange County prosecutors with criminal charges related to their children’s illegal riding of e-motorcycles. Last month, Spitzer’s office charged a Yorba Linda man with modifying his son’s bike to go 60 mph, making it a motorcycle. The suspect, 12, was seriously injured when he ran a red light on a bicycle and was hit by a car, prosecutors said.