Police: Father Arrested After 13-year-old Daughter Drives Car Into Mesa Law Office

A Valley father is in hot water after allegedly allowing his 13-year-old daughter to drive his car. On Friday night, the car driven by the 13-year-old slammed into a Mesa law office.

Boarded-up walls, shattered glass, and debris litter the floor, and the father is facing serious charges after the adolescent reportedly drove a car into the structure on December 5.

While police examine the crash, staff work on the cleanup.

“It looked like an explosion. The car, it was a sedan, just kind of came right through and collided,” said Alison Briggs, a partner with Arizona Family Lawyers. “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, an attorney in the office, rushed back shortly after the crash.

Mesa Police stated the child driver’s father, Joey Kristopher Jansen, was in the passenger seat and is now charged with endangerment and criminal damage.

“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,” Briggs said.

The car crashed through the office, leaving no one injured.

“Thank God our receptionist wasn’t in there. Thank God there was no one in there meeting with clients,” Briggs said.

But now the office, which is home to multiple firms, is left to clean up the tremendous mess.

“Just getting everything up and at least operational to the point that we can just exist on Monday. So we’re cleaning up the glass, all that stuff,” she said.

They also have to deal with expensive repairs.

“Just based on the cleanup, we’re probably at about $25,000 just based on having everything boarded up. And there’s electrical damage. The front part of our lobby, we can’t currently turn on the electricity,” Briggs noted.

It is still unclear why the 13-year-old was driving or how long she had been driving prior to the crash. Authorities are working to discover more as the investigation progresses.