An 11-year-old Florida boy headed out with a fishing pole on an electric dirt bike. Before he reached his fishing spot, police had stopped him, fingerprinted him, and called a tow truck for the bike.
Cade told News 6 that he had saved about $900 from a summer business selling squirrel tables to buy it and was later scared to ride the dirt bike again.
His father, Chris, has acknowledged there were rules his son may have broken. What he disputes is how far Oviedo police went over a trip toward Sweetwater Park to go fishing.
The officer’s probable-cause affidavit describes a 4,500-watt QRonge electric dirt bike with pegs instead of pedals that was capable of roughly 50 mph.
No Pedals
Embedded media follows; please allow a moment for it to load.
Police stopped Cade on Labor Day, Sept. 7, near North Division Street and Shady Lane in Oviedo.
The body-camera video shows the officer telling Cade he was riding a motorcycle and asking whether he knew that.
“Yes,” he replied.
When she asked why he was riding it, Cade said he was trying to get to a fishing spot. He had a fishing pole with him and told the officer his parents knew he was using the machine.
Later, however, the officer asked why his parents had apparently said they did not know anything about it.
Officer Varkony Selmer wrote in the probable-cause affidavit that she recognized the machine as a motorcycle because it had pegs rather than pedals. After running its serial number through FCIC/NCIC, she searched the vehicle information and identified a QRonge dirt bike rated at 4,500 watts and capable of roughly 50 mph.
Some early coverage reported that police said Cade was going 50 mph when he was stopped, but the affidavit does not say Selmer measured him at that speed. The uniform traffic citation also leaves the unlawful-speed and speed-measurement-device fields blank.
One Citation
Selmer cited Cade under Florida Statute 320.02(1) for failing to register a motor vehicle.
“So, you’re getting one ticket today,” Selmer tells him on bodycam. “You could have gotten six criminal violations, but I’m giving you one.”
In the comments section of the citation, she also noted no insurance, no motorcycle endorsement, no eye protection, and a 4,500-watt motor, but those observations did not become separate charges.
The Seminole County court docket lists the case as a criminal traffic matter handled by notice to appear, with $0 bond and no arrest date. He received a mandatory court date rather than being booked into jail.
Florida Statute 322.15 provides for a fingerprint to be obtained on a citation when someone operating a motor vehicle cannot display a driver’s license. Cade, who was 11, did not have one.
The bodycam shows Selmer explaining that signing the citation was not an admission of guilt before taking Cade’s right thumbprint.
The officer initially gave him the wrong mandatory court date, then returned and corrected it. The citation and police event record list the hearing for Sept. 29 at 9 a.m.
A separate tow record identifies the machine as a black 2026 QRonge and says it was taken to Oviedo Towing.
Where It Lands
Under Florida’s traffic definitions, an electric bicycle must have fully operable pedals and an electric motor rated at less than 750 watts. The law separately defines a motorcycle as a motor vehicle with a seat or saddle designed to travel on no more than three wheels, with exceptions that include qualifying electric bicycles.
The QRonge described in the police records had pegs instead of pedals and a documented 4,500-watt motor, putting it outside Florida’s electric-bicycle definition.
The criminal traffic charge concerned operating it on a public road without the registration required for that category, not simply possessing an electric dirt bike.
Already On Notice
Months before Cade’s stop, the City of Oviedo published an e-mobility warning after police received complaints about children using electric bikes, motorcycles, scooters and similar devices on roads and sidewalks.
Officers were conducting stops, speaking with children and parents, handing out information and issuing citations. The city highlighted behavior including weaving through traffic, traveling the wrong way and impeding vehicles.
The bodycam also shows Cade’s parents arriving during the stop. An adult questioned why the motorcycle could not simply be loaded into a truck, and Selmer repeatedly told the adult to remain on the sidewalk. The police event log later recorded a request for a supervisor.
Chris told News 6 that his objection was not to the existence of rules, but to how police handled this particular stop.
“The officer treated him as if it was, you know, like an adult on a motorcycle,” he said.
All parties are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.
Sept. 30: Updated with body-camera video released by the Oviedo Police Department and additional details from the citation and event record.
So wouldn’t the sales person who sold him the motorcycle be remiss, or is it it legal for 11 year olds to buy motorcycles in FL.
Legal to buy and legal to drive are two different things; these vehicles are made for off-road use primarily.