An Arizona father is facing criminal charges after authorities say he allowed his 13-year-old daughter to drive his car, which then slammed into a building while he sat in the passenger seat.
Joey Kristopher Jansen was arrested on suspicion of endangerment and criminal damage after his daughter, who has not been publicly identified, allegedly crashed his car into a law office in Mesa, Ariz., according to local outlets Fox 10 and ABC 15.
Police told the outlets that neither Jansen nor his daughter was hurt in the incident.
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“It looked like an explosion. The car, it was a sedan, just kind of came right through and collided,” Alison Briggs, a partner at My Arizona Lawyers, the firm whose office was struck, told Fox 10. “You can see the tire tracks right here. The car came through and then went right through those panels, which is part of our lobby and then our main conference room.”
Briggs said the crash left her thinking about the child at the center of the case.
“I practice a lot of family law. My first thought was: I hope Mom has a good lawyer because that parent is incredibly irresponsible, and it made me just incredibly sad for the child,” she added. “Thank God our receptionist wasn’t in there. Thank God there was no one in there meeting with clients.”
Representatives for the Mesa Police Department and My Arizona Lawyers have not yet publicly commented further on the case.
