Why Oregon Dad Sentenced for Drugging Smoothies at Daughter's Sleepover Says He Did It

According to The Oregonian, 57-year-old Lake Oswego resident Michael Meyden apologized as he entered a guilty plea on three counts of causing another person to ingest a controlled substance, stemming from the August 2023 incident. He was not charged for drugging his own daughter.

He stood accused of slipping benzodiazepine into mango smoothies.

Three victims and two of their mothers were reportedly in court for the hearing, asking the judge to impose a longer sentence.

"I am disgusted by the look of your face and your actions and all that you have done. You are horrible and I will always hate you for what you have done," one of the victims said in court.

"We were taught adults are people we can trust, people we can go to when we need help or when we are scared. Yet adults are not people I can simply trust anymore," said another. "They are people who scare me and make me think twice: What if they were to hurt me the same way as Mr. Meyden? My life has become a living hell because of you and your actions."

A third, who cited Meyden's daughter as her best friend, said "he abused that trust."

The mothers also let Meyden have it when they gave their own statements, with one of them telling the father, "You played Russian roulette with my child’s life. She is barely 5 feet tall and on a good day 70 pounds soaking wet and you overdosed her."

Added another: "No decent parent feels the need to drug their own child and her friends. 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."

Speaking on his own behalf during the hearing, Meyden said he "just wanted them to go to bed" so he could go to sleep as well. "I was overly fixated on them going to bed, yes, that is true," he added, saying he wanted them all asleep by 11pm the night of the sleepover. One of his attorneys, Jeff Turnoy, added, "he was attempting to have the girls go to sleep and not sneak out of the house so that they would engage in the activities that the family had planned the next day.”

"My whole life is destroyed. Everything that was important to me up until that point is gone," said Meyden.

The judge said she felt his remorse was "authentic" and didn't impose a longer sentence, instead sticking to the terms of the plea agreement made with prosecutors.

The probable cause affidavit, per PEOPLE, revealed more insight into what allegedly happened on that August evening, after Meyden's daughter had three friends over for a sleepover. The slumber party followed a trip to the nail salon, pizza and time in the hot tub, before showers and bed.

The three girls were interviewed by police and claimed he was "very involved with their activities" all night, "constantly checking in on them and interjecting himself into their conversations" as the girls watched movies and had a "spa night" in the basement.

He's accused of giving all four girls mango smoothies, providing them with "specific colored reusable straws to distinguish their own drink." He was allegedly "adamant that the girls drink out of their own cups" and "insisted they drink them," with one girl saying the smoothies had "tiny white chunks throughout and sprinkled on top."

When one girl allegedly complained about the taste, he made her another one ... before accusing the girl of switching drinks with someone else when she barely touched that one too. "This upset him," read the affidavit.

The girl who didn't finish her smoothie told police Meyden came downstairs more than once during the night and tried to separate two of the girls from each other as they slept. She claimed she could "feel him watching her by his presence as she kept her eyes shut, pretending to be asleep," before saying he began "doing tests to make sure we weren't awake." According to the girl, he put his finger under her nose "as if to see if she was soundly asleep," before he then "waved his hand in front of her face."

She told cops she was "concerned" and "remained awake in fear that Mr. Meyden was going to do something to" her sleeping friend.

When he left the room, the girl then began frantically texting her mother.

"Mom please pick me up and say I had a family emergency. I don’t feel safe," she allegedly messaged her mom around 1:43am. "I might not respond but please come get me (crying emoji), Please. Please pick up. Please. PLEASE!!"

She eventually reached a family friend, who came to pick her up. The girl told police that she ran into Meyden coming out of a bathroom in the basement as she tried to leave -- saying he "seemed drunk" and he "murmured and slurred." When the other girls' parents came to pick them up as well about an hour later, he allegedly told them he didn't "understand" what was happening, telling them to return in the morning; the parents all took their kids home.

It's at the hospital the next day when all three girls were interviewed by police, who noted that even 12 hours after drinking the smoothie, one of the girls still "walked slowly and used the assistance of her mother for balance, her eyelids were heavy, and she spoke slowly."

One of the girls told authorities she remembered them all telling scary stories, before she "tipped over" suddenly when she got up. She said she then blacked out and went into a "thick, deep sleep" unlike any she'd experienced before.

The girls all tested positive for benzodiazepine, which are typically used to treat anxiety or insomnia. Common benzos include Valium, Xanax, Ativan, and Klonopin.

Less than two months after the August incident, Meyden and his wife divorced after 16 years of marriage and two children.

Meyden could get five months cut off his sentence for good behavior.