Oregon dad sentenced for drugging daughter's friends at sleepover
Oregon dad drugged daughter's friends at sleepover
Parents of the 12-year-old girls spoke at the Oregon dad's sentencing. "You played Russian roulette with my child's life," one mother told Michael Meydan, who was sentenced to two years in prison for drugging his daughter's friends at a sleepover. (KPTV)
LAKE OSWEGO, Ore. - An Oregon father was sentenced to two years in prison for using smoothies to drug his daughter’s 12-year-old friends during a sleepover.
Michael Meydan of Lake Oswego, Oregon, pleaded guilty Monday to three counts of causing another person to ingest a controlled substance, according to court documents. He was accused of watching the children as they blacked out and moving one girl’s body on a bed before he was caught.
"You played Russian roulette with my child’s life," one mother told Meydan at the sentencing hearing, according to video obtained by KPTV.
"I have cried, and I have raged, all while doing my best to wrap my daughter in all the love and support I can possibly give her to help her heal from what you did," another mother said.
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"Look at me," she told Meydan as she gave her emotional statement.
Both mothers pleaded with the judge for the maximum sentence of four-and-a-half years.
Court documents say police in Lake Oswego were called to a local hospital in August 2023, after three 12-year-old girls tested positive for benzodiazopene, a depressant that "produces sedation and hypnosis," according to the DEA.
Michael Meyden, 57, was sentenced to two years in prison for drugging his daughters 12-year-old friends at a sleepover. (KPTV)
The girls told police they had attended a sleepover the night before at their friend’s house, where the friend’s father, Meyden, made mango smoothies and "insisted they drink them" after a night of facials and movies in the basement.
The girls told officers the smoothies had "tiny white chunks throughout and sprinkled on top," court documents state. One girl tried to decline the smoothie, but Meyden reportedly made her a second one and insisted she try it, police said. The girl told police she took a few sips but didn't drink much of it, though Meyden monitored her consumption and got mad when he saw that the girls were drinking out of each other's drinks. He had given each of them a different colored, reusable straw and insisted they drink out of their own cup, they told police.
One girl said after drinking it, she felt "woozy, hot and clumsy," then tipped over, blacked out and went into a "thick, deep sleep."
Another girl managed to stay awake, telling officers she "could feel him watching her by his presence as she kept her eyes shut, pretending to be asleep." She said she believed he was "doing tests to make sure we weren’t awake," at one point waving his finger under a girl's nose and twice moving a girl’s arm and body on the bed.
At 1:43 a.m., the girl sent a text to her mother: "Mom please pick me up and say I had a family emergency. I don’t feel safe. I might not respond but please come get me (crying emoji), Please. Please pick up. Please. PLEASE!!"
According to court documents, the girl was eventually able to get in touch with a family friend who came and picked her up. The family friend woke up the girl’s parents, who then notified the other girls’ parents.
When the parents drove to Meyden’s house at 3 a.m. to pick up the other girls, Meyden reportedly resisted and asked them to return in the morning. The parents insisted they were bringing the children home.
In court Monday, Meyden offered a seven-minute apology. He claims he drugged the young girls for their own safety because his daughter had tried to sneak out once before.
"I was truly worried about them and just wanted them to go to bed, and I wanted to go to bed knowing they were in their bed," Meyden said in court.
"Nothing you can say can change what you did and what your intentions were," one mother told Meyden. "There’s no forgiveness to be had here."
Meyden was charged in Clackamas County Circuit Court on Feb. 26, 2024, six months after the sleepover took place. He was initially charged with six felonies and three misdemeanors: three counts of causing another to ingest a controlled substance, three counts of application of a Schedule 4 controlled substance to another, and three counts of delivery of a controlled substance to a minor.
Court records show he and his wife divorced on Oct. 17, 2023, less than two months after the sleepover.