Michael Meyden, who is accused of drugging his daughter’s friends at a sleepover in 2023, stands to read a statement in Clackamas County Circuit Court in Oregon City, Oregon, on Monday, June 10, 2024. (Dave Killen/The Oregonian via AP)
A 57-year-old man in Oregon convicted of drugging a group of preteen girls by serving fruit smoothies laced with a prescription sedative to his 12-year-old daughter and her friends during a sleepover party is now being sued by one of the victims.
The complaint, filed earlier this week in Clackamas County Circuit Court, seeks $2.4 million from defendants Michael Meyden and his now-ex-wife, Yukiko Meyden, based on claims of intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence, and battery.
Meyden earlier this year pleaded guilty to three felony counts of causing another person to ingest a controlled substance. Clackamas County Circuit Court Judge Ann Lininger in June ordered Meyden to serve a sentence of two years in a state correctional facility.
The sleepover took place on Aug. 23, 2023, at Meyden’s home in Lake Oswego, Oregon. The complaint states that Meyden, through his daughter, invited the plaintiff and two other minor children to the residence. During the sleepover, Meyden made mango smoothies for the minor children and “insisted that plaintiff and the other minor children ingest the smoothie he prepared,” the document states.
Meyden later admitted that he spiked the smoothies with the sedative Temazepam, a Schedule IV controlled substance used to treat insomnia.
“Soon after drinking the smoothie prepared by defendant Michael Meyden, plaintiff and two other minor children became tired and fell asleep. One of the minor children had, unbeknownst to defendant Michael Meyden, not ingested the smoothie,” the complaint states. “That child observed defendant Michael Meyden acting oddly and in a manner that was concerning to them. That child also observed that one of the other children seemed very ill.”
As Law&Crime previously reported, the child who did not ingest the smoothie repeatedly called and texted her parents and family friends to come and pick her up.
“Mom please pick me up and say had family emergency,” one of the texts from about 2 a.m. reportedly read. “[D]on’t feel safe. might not respond but please come get me (crying emoji), Please. Please pick up. Please. PLEASE!”
After being picked up by a family friend and dropped at home, the girl’s parents went back and retrieved the other two friends from Meyden’s home and brought them to the hospital. The two other girls tested positive for benzodiazepine. One of the girls was reportedly speaking slowly and told police that after drinking the smoothie form Meyden she became “woozy, hot, and clumsy” before falling into a “thick, deep sleep.”
That child went on to tell police that a short while after the other kids went to the basement to sleep, she heard Meyden enter the basement as well. While pretending to be asleep, the child said she saw Meyden move the child sleeping next to her “toward the opposite side of the bed.”
Meyden then returned a second time and reportedly put his finger under the nose of the same child to check her breathing before waiving a hand in her face to ensure she was “soundly asleep.”
During Meyden’ sentencing hearing, one of the victims spoke about the incident saying, “My life has become a living hell because of you and your actions. I want you to think of yourself as the monster you are.”
Another victim told him, “You are horrible,” adding, “You are a rotten old man who did this to children.”
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