An Oregon father will spend the next two years in prison after drugging his daughter’s friends during a sleepover at his Lake Oswego home. Michael Meyden, 57, pleaded guilty to three felony counts of causing another person to ingest a controlled substance in Clackamas County Circuit Court on June 10, 2024. The father of two tearfully accepted his fate as he faced his victims and their parents.
Meyden served the 12-year-old girls smoothies spiked with benzodiazepine on August 26, 2023. One of the girls knew something was wrong and contacted her mother. They were treated at Randall Children’s Hospital at Legacy Emanuel in Portland. After a thorough investigation, Meyden turned himself in to authorities on February 27, 2024.
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The young victims addressed Meyden in court.
The Oregonian reported that Meyden sat in the courtroom with his victims standing in the gallery behind him.
“We were taught adults are people we can trust, people we can go to when we need help or when we are scared,” one of the victims who address Meyden said. “Yet adults are not people I can simply trust anymore. They are people who scare me and make me think twice. 'What if they were to hurt me the same way as Mr. Meyden?'”
The young girl added, “My life has become a living h— because of you and your actions.”
The other girls also addressed the man who drugged them.
One young person who spoke claimed to be Meyden’s daughter’s best friend. “I trusted him because he was my best friend’s dad,” she said while crying. “He abused that trust.”
A third victim looked at Meyden and said, “I am disgusted by the look of your face and your actions and all that you have done. You are horrible, and I will always hate you for what you have done,” the newspaper reported.
The victims’ mothers also spoke up.
The adults shamed Meyden for what he had done to their daughters, according to the Oregonian.
One of the victim’s mothers addressed the man she once trusted. “You played Russian roulette with my child’s life,” she told Meyden. “She is barely 5 feet tall and on a good day 70 pounds soaking wet and you overdosed her.”
Another mother said, “No decent parent feels the need to drug their own child and her friends. No decent parent feels the need to go down and confirm children are unconscious. No decent parent puts their hands on drugged and unconscious young girls without nefarious intent.”
Meyden told the court he wanted it to be a memorable evening.
The father cried in court and said he just wanted the girls to go to sleep at a reasonable hour and that’s why he made the smoothies.
Court docs revealed in February that he had insisted the girls drink the spiked smoothies and even remade one after one of the girls refused to drink it because of the taste.
A tearful Meyden said in court, “My whole life is destroyed. Everything that was important to me up until that point is gone,” the Oregonian reported.
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The families of the victims hoped for a longer sentence.
Per the Oregonian, two of the mothers asked Judge Ann Lininger to impose a longer sentence on Meyden, as each count carries a maximum of 10 years in prison. The judge opted to stand by the sentence agreed upon with prosecutors, and Meyden was handcuffed and taken straight to prison.
She also praised the young women for their strength and courage.
“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 said. “You are young people who aren’t afraid to seek justice and want justice for other people.”
