An Oregon father who’s accused of drugging three 12-year-old girls at his daughter’s sleepover last summer “seemed drunk” on the night of the alleged incident, according to a probable cause affidavit from the following day.
Last week, Michael Meyden, 57, was indicted on nine felony and misdemeanor charges including causing another person to ingest a controlled substance, the Lake Oswego Police Departmentsaidin a news release.
Meyden pleaded not guilty and posted a $50,000 bail last week, according toThe Oregonian.
Investigators spoke with the three girls and their parents at the hospital the next morning.
The girls alleged to police that Meyden was “very involved with their activities during the sleepover” and was “constantly checking in on them and interjecting himself into their conversations.” Meyden allegedly took his daughter and her three friends to get their nails done before stopping on the way home to pick up pizza. Back at the family’s Lake Oswego home, the girls allegedly “played in the sprinklers, went in the hot tub, took showers and got ready for bed at Mr. Meyden’s direction," according to the affidavit.
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Enjoying a “spa night” together, the girls told police they spent much of the night in the basement of the family’s tri-level home watching movies and doing facials while Meyden allegedly continuously checked in on them, according to the affidavit.
Meyden then allegedly instructed the girls to get ready for bed and made them a batch of smoothies with “tiny white chunks” in them and a white powder sprinkled across the top, the affidavit claims. He then “insisted they drink them,” the affidavit alleges.
One of the girls alleged to police she complained about the taste of her smoothie and that Meyden made her a second drink, again encouraging her to drink it. But the girl barely drank her smoothie, and Meyden allegedly soon accused her of switching drinks with another girl. “This upset him,” the affidavit alleges.
After going to bed, the girl who did not finish her drink alleged to police that she pretended to sleep as Meyden continued to come down to the basement, quietly checking on the girls and watching them for extended periods of time, the affidavit states.
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The girl claimed that Meyden went upstairs but returned a short time after, once again removing the girl’s arm from her friend and separating them on the bed. “She saw Mr. Meyden in the dim light place his finger underneath her nose, as if to see if she was soundly asleep, he then waved his hand in front of her face,” the affidavit alleges.
After Meyden went upstairs another time, the girl “began to text and call her parents repeatedly,” asking for them to come pick her up.
“Mom please pick me up and say I had a family emergency,” the girl texted her mother at 1:43 a.m, according to the affidavit. “I don’t feel safe. I might not respond but please come get me (crying emoji), Please. Please pick up. Please. PLEASE!!”
The girl then called and texted several friends asking if they’d have their parents pick her up. One friend’s mom soon arrived at Meyden’s house and brought the girl home, where she woke up her parents. Her parents then called the other girls’ parents to alert them. The girl quickly gathered her things to leave when she ran into Meyden, who was allegedly coming out of a basement bathroom adjacent to the room where another girl slept, according to the affidavit. “Meyden ‘seemed drunk,’ and [she] explained he murmured and slurred” a response but did not stop her from leaving, the girl told police.
A little more than an hour later, around 3 a.m., the other girls’ parents arrived at the house and told Meyden they were taking their daughters home. “I don’t understand,” Meyden allegedly said, asking the parents to come back the next morning because the girls were asleep, the affidavit claims. The parents refused and took their daughters home.
The next day, the three girls were taken to a local hospital where police interviewed them. About 12 hours after allegedly drinking the smoothies, an officer said one of the girls still “walked slowly and used the assistance of her mother for balance, her eyelids were heavy, and she spoke slowly," according to the affidavit.This second girl told police that she recalled telling scary stories with her friend the night before when she attempted to get up but “tipped over” suddenly. The girl told police she blacked out and then “she went into ‘thick, deep sleep’ that she had never experienced before,” the affidavit states. The girl told police that “she was scared and just kept repeating ‘what happened’ before they decided to come to the hospital.”
Investigators allegedly found benzodiazepines in the girls’ urine samples, leading to the allegations that Meyden drugged the girls the night before, according to the affidavit.
Less than two months after the incident last summer, Meyden got divorced from his wife of 16 years. He’s now living in Vancouver, Wash., according to localKIRO7.
Christine Pelisek
source: people.com