A young girl urgently pleaded with her mother to pick her up from a friend’s house after being unknowingly drugged by the friend’s father during a sleepover. Michael Meyden, a 58-year-old man, spiked mango smoothies with the prescription sedative Temazepam and gave them to his daughter and her friends. The girl who did not consume the drugged smoothie repeatedly contacted her parents and family friends for help.
Frantically texting her mother around 2 a.m., the distressed girl requested to be picked up, citing a family emergency and feeling unsafe. She was eventually picked up by a family friend and taken home, prompting her parents to rescue the other two friends, who were later taken to the hospital. Both tested positive for benzodiazepine, with one reporting feeling woozy, hot, and clumsy before falling into a deep sleep after consuming the smoothie.
One of the victims disclosed to the police that she witnessed Meyden moving a sleeping child next to her within his home in Lake Oswego, Oregon. During Meyden’s sentencing, the victims expressed the trauma caused by his actions, referring to him as a monster and a “rotten old man.” Meyden and his ex-wife settled a civil lawsuit filed by one victim’s father, although the settlement amount remains undisclosed in court records.
The lawsuit, filed in November 2024, sought $2.4 million for intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence, and battery. Meyden had previously pleaded guilty to three felony counts related to the drugging and was sentenced to two years in prison by Circuit Court Judge Ann Lininger in June 2024.