A Lake Oswego man gets two years in jail after admitting to spiking fruit smoothies with his prescription sedative to get his daughter and her three friends to sleep during a sleepover last summer.
Michael Meyden, 57, apologized sadly and pleaded guilty Monday in Clackamas County Circuit Court to three counts of felony forcing another person to swallow a dangerous substance.
A Clackamas County sheriff’s officer handcuffed Meyden immediately following the hearing, as the three victims, all of whom were 12 at the time, were in the courtroom gallery behind him. He could get up to five months off his sentence if he keeps a clean disciplinary record in prison.
The girls and two of their mothers addressed the court and requested that Judge Ann Lininger impose a heavier sentence; each offense carries a maximum sentence of ten years.
The girls described Meyden’s conduct as an enormous betrayal of trust, which they had spent months healing from.
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The Lake Oswego police investigation did not reveal a motive.
One of the girls claimed Meyden’s actions caused long-term injury. “We were taught adults are people we can trust, people we can go to when we need help or when we are scared,” she continued. “However, adults are no longer someone I can easily trust. They are people who scare me and make me wonder if they will hurt me in the same way that Mr. Meyden did.
She continued: “My life has become a living hell because of you and your actions.”
Another of the females claimed Meyden’s kid was her best friend. “I trusted him because he was my best friend’s dad,” she stated through tears. “He abused that trust.”
The third girl stared at Meyden and said, “I am disgusted by the look on your face, your actions, and everything you have done.” “You are horrible, and I will always despise you for what you have done.”
Meyden spiked the smoothies with sleeping pills, which sedated two of the females and caused them to black out. One of the girls refused the drink and subsequently frantically phoned her mother and a family friend to come fetch her when she got concerned about Meyden’s unusual conduct that night.
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The mother of one of the girls informed Meyden, “You played Russian roulette with my child’s life,” “She is barely 5 feet tall and on a good day 70 pounds soaking wet and you overdosed her.”
She stated that medical tests revealed that the drug level in her child’s system was “off the charts.”
“No decent parent feels the need to drug their own child and her friends,” another mother stated in court. “No respectable parent feels the need to go down and confirm their children are unconscious. No good parent puts their hands on drugged and unconscious young girls without malicious intentions.”
To preserve the victims’ privacy, The Oregonian/OregonLive will not name the parents.
The girls’ parents brought them to Randall Children’s Hospital at Legacy Emanuel in Portland the morning following the sleepover, when all three tested positive for benzodiazepine, according to court filings and prosecutors.
Senior Deputy District Attorney Bryan Brock stated that Meyden’s daughter also tested positive for the substance.
Meyden told the court that his plan for a fun and memorable sleepover failed when his daughter and her three friends did not fall asleep by 11 p.m., as he had requested.
He claimed he expected the girls to be in bed by 10:30 p.m. and asleep within 30 minutes. He explained that he wanted them to be well rested for the next day.
Meyden explained that he “just wanted them to go to bed” so he could sleep.
“I was overly fixated on them going to bed, yes, that is true,” he stated.
He stated that he accepted responsibility for his acts.
“My whole life is destroyed,” he told the court. “Everything that was important to me up until that point is gone.”
Lininger confronted Meyden, informing him that he had “created some tremendous wreckage through your decisions.”
“I am hearing you express shame and remorse and I think those are authentic,” she continued. “I think you have created a lot of pain and you rightly note that your own family is suffering a lot.”
She stated that she will follow the arrangement Meyden reached with prosecutors, calling it “a significant sentence.”
“That is accountability you have earned through some terrible, dangerous choices you have made but that is not the last thing that happens in your life,” the magistrate stated. “You have decades and decades of life ahead in which you may have an opportunity to show your children how a person comes back from terrible choices.”
Lininger hailed the girls as “strong, articulate young women who experienced an unfathomable injustice.”
“You came here today and you told the courtroom, the community and Mr. Meyden the impact on you and how you didn’t deserve that conduct,” Lininger stated. “You are young people who aren’t afraid to seek justice and want justice for other people.”
During the search, detectives confiscated computer equipment, a Vitamix blender, a handheld blender, reusable straws, a mortar and pestle, and vials of Temazepam, according to court filings.