An Oregon dad dru*gged his daughter’s young friends with smoothies laced with sedatives, then creeped over them as they drifted off to sleep, according to cops.
One of the three 12-year-old girls texted her mom with a desperate plea for help at 1:45 a.m. as she lost consciousness and begged to be rescued from the home in Lake Oswego, just south of Portland.
“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!!.” she wrote, according to police.
Michael Meyden, 57, turned himself in at the Clackamas County Jail on Wednesday after a grand jury issued an indictment accusing him of multiple felonies and misdemeanors stemming from the Aug. 26, 2023 sleepover.
Police did not speculate on a motive.
Meyden laced mango smoothies with benzodiazepine — a depressant that slows the nervous system — and served the drinks to his daughter’s friends, according to a probable cause affidavit obtained by Oregon Live.
During the sleepover, the girls watched movies and “did facials” before Meyden prepared the smoothies and “insisted they drink them,” the girls told police.
The drinks had “tiny white chunks throughout and sprinkled on top,” according to the affidavit, and Meyden continued to demand the girls down the drinks, even when one said she didn’t like hers, according to authorities.
Meyden then made repeated trips down to the basement where the girls were sleeping, at one point holding his finger under a girl’s nose to see if she was asleep, the affidavit said.
He also moved one girl’s arm and moved her body on the bed. The girl “remained awake in fear that Mr. Meyden was going to do something” to her friend, according to the affidavit.
Another girl recalled feeling “woozy, hot and clumsy” after drinking the smoothie and subsequently blacked out, falling into a “‘thick, deep sleep’ that she had never experienced before,” according to the affidavit.
Meyden returned and stood near where the girls were sleeping for what seemed like an extended period of time, and seemed to be checking to see if the girls were asleep, the girls told the police.
After one girl was rescued from the sleepover, her parents called the families of the other girls to take them home.
When the parents arrived around 3 a.m., Meyden’s resisted letting the girls go home, according to authorities.
Cops were called to the Randall Children’s Hospital emergency room, where the girls tested positive for having ingested an unknown prescription dr*ug.
The girls were interviewed by police around noon the following day, between nine and 12 hours after they had allegedly been dru*gged.
Police observed that one “walked slowly and used the assistance of her mother for balance, her eyelids were heavy, and she spoke slowly.”
Court records show Meyden and his wife divorced late last year but had owned a home in Lake Oswego at the time of the sleepover.
Meyden’s attorney, Mark Cogan, said he had not seen evidence in the case.
“Mr. Meyden is presumed innocent and we hope that people will reserve judgment until all of the facts and circumstances are known,” Cogan said.
Meyden faces charges including causing another person to ingest a controlled substance and application of a controlled substance to the body of another person.
He pleaded not guilty during his arraignment Wednesday in Clackamas County Circuit Court and his bail was set at $50,000.
