An Oregon man who laced fruit smoothies with sleeping medication and gave them to his daughter and her friends during a sleepover has been sentenced to two years in prison. Michael Meyden, 57, from Lake Oswego, pleaded guilty to three felony counts of causing another person to ingest a controlled substance.
The incident occurred last summer when Meyden hosted a sleepover for his 12-year-old daughter and three of her friends. After the girls failed to go to bed by 11pm, Meyden prepared fruit smoothies laced with a sleeping medication. Two of the friends drank the smoothies and lost consciousness, while a third refused and alerted a family friend via text message.
Meyden later returned to the room to check on the girls, moving one girl's arm and another's body, and placing a finger under a girl's nose to confirm she was asleep. The family friend collected the girl who had sent the text and contacted her parents, who then alerted the other families. All four girls, including Meyden's daughter, tested positive for benzodiazepine, a drug used to treat insomnia and anxiety.
During sentencing on Monday, Meyden apologised, saying, 'My whole life is destroyed. Everything that was important to me up until that point is gone.' However, one of the girl's mothers condemned his actions, stating, 'No decent parent feels the need to drug their own child and her friends... No decent parent puts their hands on drugged and unconscious young girls without nefarious intent.'
