The Daily Populous Thursday June 13rd, 2024 morning edition
Authored by theguardian.com and submitted by TanEnojadoComoTu

An Oregon man who drugged his daughter and her friends with fruit smoothies laced with a sleeping medication after they didn’t go to bed during a sleepover was sentenced to two years in prison.

Michael Meyden, a 57-year-old from the Portland suburb of Lake Oswego, apologized during his sentencing on Monday after pleading guilty to three felony counts of causing another person to ingest a controlled substance, the Oregonian reported.

“My whole life is destroyed,” he told the court. “Everything that was important to me up until that point is gone.”

He said he planned a fun sleepover last summer for his daughter and three of her friends, all then age 12, but they didn’t go to bed by 11pm as he wanted. Meyden said he wanted them well rested for the next day, but he also wanted them to go to bed so he could sleep.

Meyden laced fruit smoothies with a sleeping medication, authorities said. Two of the friends drank the smoothies and eventually passed out. A third girl didn’t want the drink and alerted a family friend by text message after she saw Meyden return to make sure the girls were asleep. He moved the arm of one girl and the body of another and put his finger under one’s nose to see if she was asleep.

The family friend picked up the girl and woke her parents, who then contacted the families of the other girls.

The girls tested positive at a local hospital for benzodiazepine, used to treat insomnia and anxiety. Prosecutors said Meyden’s daughter also tested positive.

“No decent parent feels the need to drug their own child and her friends,” one of the girl’s mothers told Meyden during sentencing. “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.”

GreatWhiteNorthExtra on June 12nd, 2024 at 16:29 UTC »

> “My whole life is destroyed,” he told the court. “Everything that was important to me up until that point is gone.”

His life is destroyed because he got caught committing a crime. He brought this on himself.

allnadream on June 12nd, 2024 at 16:21 UTC »

Just for a little more context, this is how the one girl who didn't drink the laced smoothies described what happened next:

> The girl who remained conscious told investigators that she saw Meyden try to pull one of the other girls toward the side of the bed, and she pretended she was sleeping and put her arm around the girl. Meyden came back downstairs a second time and tried to do the same thing, the girl said. When he left again, the girl texted her mom.

> When Meyden came back a third time, the girl said he stood over her and she could "feel him" watching her for 15 minutes.

Also, the third girl and her parents are heroes:

> When she was able to get in touch with a family friend, she told the friend she felt "unsafe because of her friend's dad" and the friend agreed to pick her up.

> When she was taken home, the girl woke up her parents and explained what happened. Her parents tried contacting the parents of the girls still at the sleepover and could not get a hold of them.

> At 3 a.m., the girl's parents went back to Meyden's home and picked up the other two girls. Meyden was "evasive" and told them to come back in the morning.

> The girl's parents persisted and were able to pick up the girls and take them to their homes.

Source: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2024/03/05/michael-meyden-oregon-dad-drugging-sleepover-girls-charges/72842406007/

AudibleNod on June 12nd, 2024 at 15:44 UTC »

> “My whole life is destroyed,” he told the court. “Everything that was important to me up until that point is gone.”

That's what happens when you slip benzodiazepine into fruit smoothies and give them to tweens at a sleepover.