Woman charged in death of man killed by her son an on e-motorcycle

Ashman, a former U.S. Marine Corps captain, was walking home from his job as a substitute teacher at a Lake Forest high school.

He was seriously injured and died Thursday, and Mejer, of Aliso Viejo in Orange County, was charged with involuntary manslaughter as a result of an earlier child endangerment charge.

“This mother essentially handed her 14-year-old son a deadly weapon and despite multiple warnings of the dangers, she continued to illegally let him ride an e-motorcycle until he ultimately killed someone,” Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said in a statement.

Mejer has not yet appeared in court and there was no public defender on file for her.

Prosecutors gave The Associated Press the name of a private attorney who may have represented Mejer; that person did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

Mejer was also charged with aiding and abetting crimes after the fact and the misdemeanors of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and providing false information to an officer.

In June 2025, prosecutors said, Mejer called the Sheriff’s Department to complain that someone was posting photos of her son on the e-motorcycle.

In an interaction with deputies that was captured by a body camera, she said she purchased the vehicle and “knew he was driving it recklessly.”

She was warned by officers that she could face criminal charges for allowing him to drive illegally, prosecutors said.

A bicycle is classified as an e-motorcycle under California state law if it has an electric motor with a power of more than 750 watts or can reach speeds above 20 mph without having to pedal.

Riders must be at least 16 years old and have a motorcycle license.

The Surron e-motorcycle in question can reach a speed of 90 km/h, according to the manufacturers.

In the hours after the April collision, Mejer told officers that neither she nor her son owned or had access to a Surron e-motorcycle, prosecutors said.

The Public Prosecution Service says it cannot discuss whether the boy will be prosecuted because it is a juvenile case.

Orange County prosecutors this year filed child endangerment charges against three parents for illegally letting children ride e-motorcycles.

And in Contra Costa County, Northern California, parents were charged after their child crashed into a minivan.

In the past, parents were typically prosecuted in truancy cases because the law specifically addresses their liability, said Lawrence Rosenthal, a law professor at Chapman University.

But the criminal liability of parents under other circumstances has received attention in recent years, especially in prosecutions and convictions related to shootings committed by minors.

“This is a very new theory. There is no long, robust history,” Rosenthal said.

In cases involving shootings, prosecutors must prove the parent committed an act of “criminal negligence” that led to death, such as providing access to a gun, Rosenthal said.

However, the legal theories used may be more difficult to prove in e-motorcycle cases, Rosenthal said.

Prosecutors will have to show that parents knew the risk of an e-motorcycle when they let their child ride one, and that firearms pose a “much more easily understood threat to human life.”

“Is it reasonably foreseeable that a child is going to kill someone?” Rosenthal said.