1y ago

Oregon man spiked smoothies for daughter's 12-year-old friends with sedatives, affidavit says

www.nbcnews.com

Michael Meyden is accused of making the smoothies with benzodiazepine, a drug typically prescribed for anxiety, according to a probable cause affidavit.

An Oregon man accused of spiking smoothies with sedatives and giving them to his daughter’s pre-teen friends has been charged with multiple felonies, according to court documents.

Michael Meyden, 57, of Lake Oswego, allegedly drugged three of his daughter’s friends while they slept over on the night of Aug. 25, 2023, according to court documents and a probable cause affidavit filed this week in Clackamas County.

The girls, all 12 years old, were hospitalized and tested positive for benzodiazepine, described in the affidavit as a drug typically prescribed for anxiety, with common prescriptions under the names Valium, Xanax and Klonopin. Benzodiazepines are a depressant that produces sedation, sleepiness and a relaxed mood, the affidavit said.

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This seems to be more serious that what have been suggested by other comments.
Luckily one of the girls didn't like the smoothie and didn't take much. She didn't fall into deep sleep and was the one who suspected something fishy going on when the man kept coming to the basement. The man even tried to separate the girls. Again, the girl protected her friends by pulling them closer to her. She finally managed to contact her family friend, when the man went outside, messaging them to come and bring her home, and once she was saved, the other families followed suit.
Given a different scenario where everyone took the smoothies, I speculate with high degree of confidence someone would get sexually assaulted or worse.
- This is like the plot of the movie Happiness.
  
  I haven't been able to find a good copy of this one yet, it's somewhat obscure nowadays
- And this is why we don’t allow our kids to participate in sleep overs.
  Edit: Downvote all you want, sleepovers are weird and too risky.
  Edit 2: Ok I wasn’t going to include this context but since you are all so ignorant I feel the need to. My son went on a sleep over when he was 14 and ended up getting molested. So for the rest of my kids (yes they are teen girls), there is a zero sleep over policy.
  So for all of you judgmental assholes, fuck off.
  
  And this is why you have the weird kids who can't function
  
  Sleepovers were a huge part of my childhood.
  Waking up in the morning at your best friends house and playing Nintendo with the volume on the tv way down before their parents are awake who then make us pancakes are core memories.
  Should be a said though that my friends parents were reasonable close friends with my own parents and my friends slept over at my place regularly as well.
  You raise your kids however you want but don’t underestimate the small experience of independence a sleepover can give a child.
  
  Do you also not allow your kids to set foot in a car? Much more dangerous than sleepovers
  
  Kids get abducted if you allow them to go outside, never let them go outside.
  
  That's not the solution
  
  Your child is going to hate you for smothering them and unfairly limiiting their ability to be a child because of your misplaced anxieties. This sort of shit is an exception to the normal, and your hurting your children by cowering in fear over something that's a very low probability.
  I hope you don't drive your kids anywhere, that's waaaaaaay too risky and dangerous for them if you think sleepovers are risky.
  
  Yes, yes, restrict and police rather than educate and enable personal agency. All children need is to live in an impermeable bubble of perfect safety, not learn any life skills at all... 🤦🏼‍♂️
  Fucksake. Your kids are going to be stunted adults that require $$$$ of therapy to function in the real world. Congrats.
  
  You're their parent, who cares what rando internet strangers think. You do what you feel is best for your kids.
  
  Weirdly specific. I had an argument about this exact thing on a post a few weeks ago. There was someone who had a friend who ~~lost~~ was divorced by his wife (phrasing issue) and couldn't understand why other parents were wary of him hosting a sleepover for his daughter. He had done so many times as a married man but suddenly couldn't.
  So the argument was about how women in general, especially parents of little girls, can't blindly trust every man they meet. There were some salty males insisting that line of logic is sexist.
  Anyway, banning all sleepovers isn't the solution. Properly chaperoned sleepovers with two parents present should be fine.
  [Edit: Yes, I realize that it's technically sexist. The fact that it is is beside the point that it's necessary for women to be wary of men. If you don't understand why, ask literally any woman in your life to explain it for you]
  [Edit #2: I'm not engaging anyone else on the subject from this point. I have successfully fallen into the same trap of holding dudes' hands who don't understand that strange men do, in fact, pose a risk to women, and now my morning has been wasted.
  I already elaborated this point more than enough. If you still feel the need to express how this offends you after you read down this thread, I would urge you to look elsewhere into women's perspectives on the subject before you just handwave it like these guys are trying to do.]
  
  People are down voting you, but I've heard about a lot of inappropriate behavior at sleepovers from people close to me, boys and girls. Me and my siblings were not allowed to go to sleepovers. Nobody thought we were weird. Once my parents grew a relationship with a friend's parents, that rule got broken once in a while. Other than that, we were allowed to invite a friend over for a sleepover if we wanted one 🤷🏼‍♀️ I'm an adult now with my own child, and I'm really glad my parents protected me. I will have the same rule
I don’t feel safe. I might not respond but please come get me
My God, I would have an absolute panic attack if my kid ever texted me this. I would be shaking with fear and rage the entire drive over.
- Id be at that door in 10 mins with a felony tucked in my waistband.
  
  That could be phrases differently.
- As a primary (elementary) teacher I once had a grade 2 kid with scolded fingers from her mum. My principal ordered me to go home and paid for a taxi that day. Fortunately I have never crossed paths with that mother again.
  
  Huh?
  
  Scolded?
Burying the lede here:
"Eventually two parents went to Mayden’s home to get the other two girls, but Meyden was reluctant to let them leave, the affidavit said. "
The guy that drugged the girls didn't want them to leave with their parents?!
- I think he was expecting the benzos to wear off before parents had any chance to inspect their kids. They showed up too early, and the effects of the benzos would have been quite evident, and he'd be in a fuckload of trouble. Which is exactly what's happening.
  
  benzos have a long half life, i think it's like 3 day.
Any explanation for this is going to be horrible
- Not that actually doing it isn’t absolutely horrible but wait till you have children, at about 7yo they invite 8 of their friends in your house and it’s pouring outside.
  The idea of sedating them will eventually come in mind. Then obviously you’ll discard it.
  And come the moment of cleaning the mess they inevitably leave you’ll wonder if you should have done it.
  
  Yeah, there's a big difference between using melatonin as a "sedative" so they don't stay up all night and wreck the house, and using a powerful sedative to knock them out and abuse them.
  Granted, I am NOT advocating using melatonin on other people's kids, especially without consent from the parents, but one of those scenarios is considerably more evil than the other.
  This guy gave the kids adult anxiety meds in smoothies, that makes this particular scenario much worse than a misguided attempt to make them go to bed early.
  
  He could have just used melatonin if regular sleepiness was his goal.
  
  Then obviously you’ll discard it.
  Apparently, since the article didn't bring up any sort of sex crimes, he did not discard it.
  Where did he get the Benzos from?
- Did you read the article? It seems like predatory behavior... gross
One girl drank two cups, and another girl drank one cup and a third said she did not like the smoothies and barely drank any at all. It was unclear how many smoothies Meyden’s daughter drank, but one girl told police it appeared to be a significant amount, the affidavit said.
One girl drank at least twice as much as the others, and the guy drugged his own daughter, too. What a piece of shit.
A girl who told police she drank two smoothies said she began to feel woozy, hot and clumsy, shortly after finishing the second smoothie. She said she “blacked out” and slipped into a “thick, deep sleep” she never experienced before, the affidavit said.
I know they’re only 12, but how much did he put in there I wonder?
And did the girl who didn’t drink much of the smoothie just not like the flavor or whatever, or did she think it tasted weird because she could taste whatever he spiked it with?
- It's possible it tasted fine but subliminally she knew something was wrong about the drink because of his behavior. Everyone should listen to their instincts like that child, she followed her instincts again later that night and saved herself and her friends.
  
  Or, maybe she didn't like banana.
- and the guy drugged his own daughter, too. What a piece of shit.
  Well, he probably rightly assumed his daughter would not want him assaulting her friends and would tell someone.
- I occasionally take alprazolam under the tongue, and it does taste awful. Leaves a sort of metallic aftertaste.
Shitty article writing. He didn't spike their drinks with 'benzodiazepine', he spiked them with 'a benzodiazepine'.
'Benzodiazepine' isn't any specific drug, it's a structural class of drugs
- Looks like you're right. I was expecting it to be like amphetamine, where it's both a class and a specific compound.
  
  The poor writing is academic, the story is horrifying. But the horror of the story had already been commented on, so I was nitpicking.
  Amphetamine is a shortening of a specific structural name, and is the example for the class of similar drugs, while benzodiazepine is a more general structural name for drugs that have linked benzene and diazepine rings; all of the drugs of interest have different functional groups, and there's no 'base' drug that they're modifications of
This was recently in an episode of The Bear.
Catering a party of hyperactive kids and made spiked smoothies to sedate them. Wow.
- Didn't they do that on accident?
  
  Yup
Bill Cosby is NOT a role model!
That is seriously fucked up.
Wasn't this the plot of an episode of bear?
- And Happiness
Some people go to the extreme about annoying kids..
Is it possible that the girls wanted to get rid of the father of their friend, spiked their own smoothies, and now an honest man is being pitchforked?
Did that man do anything else than being present? Playing with the girls? Taking part in the sleepover? Did he have the drugs on hand? Did any of the girls have access to that drug at all? Was there a grudge?
How single-sided can this reporting be?
But after reading the initial article, yeah, probably a predator. Still. A thorough investigation should take place. There are well-meaning and involved people who don't have an interest in abuse. It's still possible the daughter was sick of her hyper-involved dad, and planned the whole thing. :')
- It’s still possible the daughter was sick of her hyper-involved dad, and planned the whole thing
  What the actual F, dude?
- When you hear hoofbeats, think horses, and not zebras. The guy needs to have an investigation done, and a proper trial, yes of course. And if something else happened, hopefully it'll come out during that, but that's a bit of a weird thing to gravitate towards first, man.
  
  I'm not gravitating to that first at all. The other side of the story has been already told. I'm just saying what if. And things like that have happened. Why woulda nyone jump to the conclusion that it might be my first thought? It's my last one. But one that has to be completely discussed and dismissed. Innocent until proven guilty. That article didn't even hint at the possibility, it is an atrocity of journalism.
- Seems most likely that he wanted the girls to chill out and go to sleep, so he gave them benzos.
I have 2 year old twins... I get it.
I mean it's wrong and I would never do that, but I get it.
- He went down and tried to separate the girls in their sleep while putting his hands on them.
  One girl describes how unsafe she felt for her drugged friends when he was trying to separate them.
- You'd rape the underage friends of your daughters? The fuck?
  
  That's obviously not what they meant.
  They get the desire to make a group of kids chill out and sleep.
  The blurb and headline make no insinuation of sexual abuse.

105 comments