This case is mostly over… but the Oregon dad who drugged his daughter’s friends is going to piss you off one last time before he goes to prison…
OK, so if you were lucky enough to have avoided this horrifying story, here’s the rundown. Michael Meyden helped his 12-year-old daughter plan a sleepover last August. Not only did he help out, he came up with the idea for a whole “spa night” theme, complete with pampering, hot tub time, and healthy mango smoothies. The smoothies are the most important part here. According to an affidavit, he gave the girls “specific colored reusable straws to distinguish their own drink” and was “adamant that the girls drink out of their own cups.” One girl later described feeling “woozy, hot and clumsy” after drinking her smoothie.
But one girl was creeped out the entire time — and followed her instinct, refusing to drink. She says she woke up to see the 57-year-old coming in and double checking the girls were asleep. Pretending she was unconscious, she saw him standing over them, even moving them to make sure they were out. She freaked out, rightly so, and called a family friend to come get her. And eventually her parents, learning the story, got the rest of the girls out of there, too.
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It turned out Meyden had crushed up benzodiazepine pills and mixed them into the mango smoothies. Benzodiazepine is a sedative that causes a relaxed, hypnotic effect. Thankfully the girls never found out what he had planned for them when they were completely defenseless in their drugged sleep — but the mind reels.
After his arrest, Meyden admitted to drugging the tweens, not that he had much room to deny it. He pleaded guilty to three counts of causing another person to ingest a controlled substance — and he’s lucky that’s all he got. He was sentenced on Monday to just TWO YEARS in prison. But it was during the sentencing hearing we finally got to hear directly from the disgraced dad. And what he had to say was infuriating!
Per local outlets, he claimed in court he only spiked the girls’ drinks because he “wanted them to go to bed” on time. You know, because he was such a concerned dad! No staying up past 11, or you’ll all get drugged! Makes perfect sense, right? BLECCH. His attorney even went along with the story, saying his client “was attempting to have the girls go to sleep and not sneak out of the house so that they would engage in the activities that the family had planned the next day.” Per the Oregonian, the closest Meyden got to admitting wrongdoing was saying:
“I was overly fixated on them going to bed, yes, that is true.”
Does he seriously expect anyone to believe he drugged a bunch of 12-year-old girls to keep the sleepover from getting rowdy? Come on! We’d charge his ass for perjury on that comment alone! He did say something true:
“My whole life is destroyed. Everything that was important to me up until that point is gone.”
Welp.
Meyden wasn’t the only voice the judge heard from. The three young victims were also in the court. One told him:
“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.”
A second victim said:
“We were taught adults are people we can trust, people we can go to when we need help or when we are scared. 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? My life has become a living hell because of you and your actions.”
His daughter’s best friend said he “abused” the trust they’d put in him as their protector that evening. One of the girl’s mothers blasted Meyden as well, pointing out this supposed act of a caring dad easily could have killed the girls:
“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.”
One mom blasted his B.S. excuse, saying:
“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.”
Like we mentioned, the judge took it all into account and gave him just two years. which still seems like an extremely short sentence to us. After the judgment, Clackamas County District Attorney John Wentworth said in a statement to People:
“Mr. Meyden’s actions are inexcusable and reckless and required a punishment commensurate with the crime. The impact this event has had on the child victims, their families, and our community has been enormous.”
Was two years really “commensurate with the crime” of drugging these young girls, risking their lives for whatever disgusting reason?? Let us know what YOU think, Perezcious readers!
[Image via Clackamas County DA’s Office.]
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