An OC teen on an e-motorbike injured an 81-year-old man. The teen's mom now faces felony charges
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An Aliso Viejo mother is the latest Orange County parent to face felony charges related to her child’s use of an electric motorcycle, as prosecutors pledge to continue cracking down on parents who allow teens to illegally ride such high-powered vehicles.Tommi Jo Mejer, 50, was arrested this week after investigators linked her 14-year-old son to an e-motorcycle crash that critically wounded an 81-year-old man April 16, according to a news release from the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.Months before the crash, Mejer had been “warned of the dangers of continuing to allow her middle school son to illegally ride an e-motorcycle,” as well as the potential consequences, Orange County prosecutors said.
Her son is accused of “doing wheelies” on his e-motorcycle in the middle of the road near El Toro High School in Lake Forest when he hit the 81-year-old man, who prosecutors say was a veteran of the Vietnam War and had been working as a substitute teacher.The man remains hospitalized and in critical condition, according to prosecutors.
California After the crash, a law enforcement inspection revealed the bike had been altered in three significant ways, prosecutors say.Mejer has now been charged on suspicion of felony child endangerment and felony accessory after the fact of a crime, as well as misdemeanors for contributing to the delinquency of a minor, loaning a motor vehicle to an unlicensed driver and providing false information to an officer.It wasn’t immediately clear what criminal repercussions, if any, have been brought against her son, who was not identified because he’s a minor.
If convicted of all the charges against her, Mejer faces a maximum sentence of six years in state prison.Orange County Dist.
Atty.Todd Spitzer said that state law has made it “virtually impossible for prosecutors to hold juveniles accountable,” so his office has taken ai...