A 57-year-old man in Oregon was found guilty of drugging a group of preteen girls by giving his 12-year-old daughter and her friends prescription sedative-laced fruit smoothies at a sleepover party. One of the victims is now suing the man.
The complaint, which was filed earlier this week in Clackamas County Circuit Court, asks Michael Meyden and his ex-wife Yukiko Meyden for $2.4 million. It claims they intentionally caused emotional distress, were careless, and hit the woman.
This year, Meyden pleaded guilty to three counts of felony causing someone to take a controlled substance. In June, Judge Ann Lininger of Clackamas County Circuit Court told Meyden that he would have to spend two years in a state prison.
They slept over at Meyden’s house in Lake Oswego, Oregon, on August 23, 2023. In the complaint, it is said that Meyden invited the plaintiff and two other minor children to his home through his daughter.
The document says that Meyden “insisted that plaintiff and the other minor children ingest the smoothie he prepared” during the sleepover. He also made mango smoothies for the kids.
Meyden later admitted that he put Temazepam, a Schedule IV controlled substance used to treat insomnia, in the smoothies to make them more powerful.
“As soon as plaintiff and two other minor children drank the smoothie that defendant Michael Meyden made, they got tired and fell asleep.”
“Defendant Michael Meyden did not know that one of the minor children had not drunk the smoothie,” the complaint says. “That child saw defendant Michael Meyden acting in a strange and upsetting way.” “That child also saw that another child looked really sick.”
Law&Crime previously reported that the child who didn’t drink the smoothie called and texted her parents and family friends many times to ask them to come get her.
One of the texts from around 2 a.m. said, “Mom, please pick me up and say I had a family emergency.” “Don’t feel safe.” You might not answer, but please come get me (crying face). Pick up the phone. Please. PLEASE!”
A family friend picked up the girl and dropped her off at home. The girl’s parents then went back to Meyden’s house to get her other two friends and took them to the hospital. Benzodiazepines were found in the two other girls.
According to the police, one of the girls spoke slowly when she told them that Meyden’s smoothie made her “woozy, hot, and clumsy” before she fell into a “thick, deep sleep.”
The child then told the police that she heard Meyden go into the basement to sleep not long after the other kids did. Though the child was not really awake, she said she saw Meyden move the child who was sleeping next to her “toward the other side of the bed.”
Meyden reportedly went back a second time and put his finger under the same child’s nose to make sure she was breathing. He then waved his hand over her face to make sure she was “soundly asleep.”
One of Meyden’s victims talked about what happened at his sentencing hearing. They said, “Because of you and your actions, my life has become a living hell.” “I want you to see yourself as the evil person you are.”
Someone else told him, “You are awful,” and they added, “You are an evil old man who hurt children.”
