Many parents are understandably hesitant to allow their kids to have sleepovers with friends—especially if they don’t know the family too well. Even when caregivers think they know a family, inappropriate behavior can unfortunately still happen behind closed doors. However, a news story of a father drugging his 12-year-old daughter’s friends with laced smoothies has unlocked a whole new layer of fears for parents.
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On February 27, Oregon man Michael Meyden, 57, turned himself in on felony and misdemeanor allegations, The Oregonian reported. He pleaded not guilty the following day to the charges stemming from allegedly lacing mango smoothies with benzodiazepine—a depressant that slows the nervous system—and serving them to his daughter’s friends, three 12-year-old girls. The alleged incident happened during a sleepover on August 26, 2023.
Now, disturbing new details have emerged in the case. Let’s take a closer look.
One of the girls sent desperate texts to a family friend during the incident.
After Meyden reportedly coerced the three girls to drink the smoothies, he allegedly checked to see if they were conscious while they pretended to sleep. “So I’m ‘sleeping,’ and her dad comes down and [I’m] hugging [one of the other girls] because she was scared, and he kept moving us away from each other but kept doing tests to make sure we weren’t awake,” one of the girls told a family friend in texts, according to a probable cause affidavit obtained by the New York Post.
Another girl could barely remain conscious.
The 12-year-old girl shared another scary detail about the incident. She said one of the other girls was not able to remain conscious. “Also, [the other girl] won’t wake up and she did for like 2 seconds, but she kept her eyes closed and didn’t talk,” she told the family friend via text, before they agreed to pick her up from the sleepover.
Mayden ‘seemed drunk’ when the girl’s family friend arrived.
The probable cause affidavit revealed that Mayden allegedly “seemed drunk” when the family friend came to pick the girl up from his Lake Oswego home. When the girl’s family friend arrived, Mayden allegedly spoke with slurred speech. However, he didn’t attempt to prevent her from leaving.
Parents of the girl who left early returned to pick up the other two girls.
The family friend reportedly brought home the girl, who then woke up her parents. The parents made the decision to drive to Meyden’s home to retrieve the remaining two 12-year-old girls. It was around 3 a.m. at this point.
One of the girls couldn’t walk when she got home.
One of the tween girls described her symptoms, explaining she fell into a “thick, deep sleep” that had never happened to her before, per the New York Post. Additionally, the girl said she couldn’t walk when she arrived at her home; instead, she was carried inside. After the girl asked “What happened?” over and over, her parents took her to a hospital.
A police report revealed more details of how the girls reacted to the laced smoothies.
All three girls tested positive for having ingested benzodiazepine at Randall Children’s Hospital emergency room, USA Today reported.
According to a statement given to Lake Oswego police Detective Nicole Palmeri, one of the girls couldn’t remember what happened after “blacking out.” She still felt “hot, woozy and clumsy,” the New York Post reported. Meanwhile, police say they noticed one of the girls “walked slowly and used the assistance of her mother for balance, her eyelids were heavy, and she spoke slowly.”
Mayden has been released from jail on $50,000 bail.
USA Today reported that Meyden is facing nine counts in total. They include 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. Meyden turned himself in at Clackamas County Jail, where his bail was set at $50,000. He has since been released.
