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A 57-year-old man is accused of drugging three 12-year-old girls with sedative-laced smoothies during his daughter’s sleepover last summer at his Lake Oswego home, court records show.
Michael Meyden turned himself in to the Clackamas County Jail late Tuesday on multiple felony and misdemeanor allegations and pleaded not guilty during his arraignment Wednesday in Clackamas County Circuit Court. His bail was set at $50,000.
Meyden laced mango smoothies with benzodiazepine and served the drinks to his daughter’s friends, according to a probable cause affidavit written by Lake Oswego police Detective Nicole Palmeri. Benzodiazepine is a depressant that slows the nervous system.
The affidavit doesn’t explain a motive.
Meyden faces charges including causing another person to ingest a controlled substance and application of a controlled substance to the body of another person.
Mark Cogan, Meyden’s lawyer, 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.
The investigation began Aug. 26 when Lake Oswego police were called to the emergency room at Randall Children’s Hospital at Legacy Emanuel in Portland where three girls tested positive for benzodiazepine.
The girls told police they attended a Saturday sleepover at their friend’s home and they suspected they had “unknowingly been given drugs by their friend’s father,” according to the affidavit. They described feeling groggy, even blacking out.
They told police Meyden had been “very involved” with their activities during the sleepover and they “got ready for bed at Mr. Meyden’s direction,” Palmeri wrote.
The girls spent most of the time in the basement, where they watched movies and “did facials,” according to the affidavit.
Sometime between 9 p.m. and 11 p.m., Meyden prepared the smoothies “and insisted they drink them,” the girls told police. The drinks had “tiny white chunks throughout and sprinkled on top,” the affidavit says.
One of the girls said she didn’t like smoothies and declined to drink hers, but Meyden insisted, even making a second one for her to try, Palmeri wrote.
The record is redacted; it is unclear who the detective is referring to when she describes their accounts.
According to the affidavit, Meyden made repeated visits to the basement, at one point holding his finger under one girl’s nose and waving his hand in front of her face to see if she was asleep.
He also moved one girl’s arm and moved her body on the bed, the affidavit says. The girl “remained awake in fear that Mr. Meyden was going to do something” to her friend, according to the affidavit.
The affidavit says Meyden walked out of the room, prompting a girl to text her mother at 1:43 a.m. Sunday: “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!!”
Meyden returned to the basement again, standing near the area where the girls were sleeping for what seemed like an extended period of time, Palmeri wrote.
One girl told police “she could feel him watching her by his presence as she kept her eyes shut, pretending to be asleep.” Meyden appeared to keep “doing tests to make sure we weren’t awake,” a girl told Palmeri.
In the middle of the night, an adult who one of the girls had texted came to pick her up and bring her home. The girl then woke up her parents, who then contacted the parents of the other girls, according to the affidavit.
Those parents went to the Meyden home about 3 a.m. to collect their daughters.
Meyden resisted at first, saying the girls were asleep and asking the parents to return in the morning, Palmeri wrote. The parents insisted, she wrote.
At noon the following day, between nine and 12 hours after the girls had allegedly been drugged, Palmeri interviewed one of them, observing that the girl “walked slowly and used the assistance of her mother for balance, her eyelids were heavy, and she spoke slowly.”
The girl recalled she felt “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.
The girl could not walk on her own after she left Meyden’s house and kept repeating “what happened” before her parents decided to take her to the hospital, Palmeri wrote.
Court records show Meyden and his wife divorced late last year; they owned a home in Lake Oswego at the time of the sleepover.
Neither of their two children is named as a victim in the indictment. Court records list Meyden’s current address as an RV park in Vancouver.
The divorce filing notes that Meyden worked as a human resources director but was out of work at the time he and his wife split up.
A 57-year-old man is accused of drugging three 12-year-old girls with sedative-laced smoothies during his daughter’s sleepover last summer at his Lake Oswego home, court records show.
Michael Meyden turned himself in to the Clackamas County Jail late Tuesday on multiple felony and misdemeanor allegations and pleaded not guilty during his arraignment Wednesday in Clackamas County Circuit Court. His bail was set at $50,000.
Meyden laced mango smoothies with benzodiazepine and served the drinks to his daughter’s friends, according to a probable cause affidavit written by Lake Oswego police Detective Nicole Palmeri. Benzodiazepine is a depressant that slows the nervous system.
The affidavit doesn’t explain a motive.
Meyden faces charges including causing another person to ingest a controlled substance and application of a controlled substance to the body of another person.
Mark Cogan, Meyden’s lawyer, 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.
The investigation began Aug. 26 when Lake Oswego police were called to the emergency room at Randall Children’s Hospital at Legacy Emanuel in Portland where three girls tested positive for benzodiazepine.
The girls told police they attended a Saturday sleepover at their friend’s home and they suspected they had “unknowingly been given drugs by their friend’s father,” according to the affidavit. They described feeling groggy, even blacking out.
They told police Meyden had been “very involved” with their activities during the sleepover and they “got ready for bed at Mr. Meyden’s direction,” Palmeri wrote.
The girls spent most of the time in the basement, where they watched movies and “did facials,” according to the affidavit.
Sometime between 9 p.m. and 11 p.m., Meyden prepared the smoothies “and insisted they drink them,” the girls told police. The drinks had “tiny white chunks throughout and sprinkled on top,” the affidavit says.
One of the girls said she didn’t like smoothies and declined to drink hers, but Meyden insisted, even making a second one for her to try, Palmeri wrote.
The record is redacted; it is unclear who the detective is referring to when she describes their accounts.
According to the affidavit, Meyden made repeated visits to the basement, at one point holding his finger under one girl’s nose and waving his hand in front of her face to see if she was asleep.
He also moved one girl’s arm and moved her body on the bed, the affidavit says. The girl “remained awake in fear that Mr. Meyden was going to do something” to her friend, according to the affidavit.
The affidavit says Meyden walked out of the room, prompting a girl to text her mother at 1:43 a.m. Sunday: “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!!”
Meyden returned to the basement again, standing near the area where the girls were sleeping for what seemed like an extended period of time, Palmeri wrote.
One girl told police “she could feel him watching her by his presence as she kept her eyes shut, pretending to be asleep.” Meyden appeared to keep “doing tests to make sure we weren’t awake,” a girl told Palmeri.
In the middle of the night, an adult who one of the girls had texted came to pick her up and bring her home. The girl then woke up her parents, who then contacted the parents of the other girls, according to the affidavit.
Those parents went to the Meyden home about 3 a.m. to collect their daughters.
Meyden resisted at first, saying the girls were asleep and asking the parents to return in the morning, Palmeri wrote. The parents insisted, she wrote.
At noon the following day, between nine and 12 hours after the girls had allegedly been drugged, Palmeri interviewed one of them, observing that the girl “walked slowly and used the assistance of her mother for balance, her eyelids were heavy, and she spoke slowly.”
The girl recalled she felt “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.
The girl could not walk on her own after she left Meyden’s house and kept repeating “what happened” before her parents decided to take her to the hospital, Palmeri wrote.
Court records show Meyden and his wife divorced late last year; they owned a home in Lake Oswego at the time of the sleepover.
Neither of their two children is named as a victim in the indictment. Court records list Meyden’s current address as an RV park in Vancouver.
The divorce filing notes that Meyden worked as a human resources director but was out of work at the time he and his wife split up.
