An Oregon man who drugged his daughter and her friends with fruit smoothies laced with a sleeping medication after they didn’t go to bed during a sleepover was sentenced to two years in prison.
Michael Meyden, a 57-year-old from the Portland suburb of Lake Oswego, apologized during his sentencing Monday after pleading guilty to three felony counts of causing another person to ingest a controlled substance, The Oregonian reported.
“My whole life is destroyed,” he told the court. “Everything that was important to me up until that point is gone.”
Two years is not enough for attempted rape.
There’s no evidence of attempted rape right?
The 2 years was specifically for drugging kids so they would go to sleep because there was no evidence of anything like sexual assault.
An article was linked in other comment threads, there was a clear start and an uncomfortable girl who texted her mom with absolute fear of being raped.
Something a lot more than moving them around may have happened if she didn’t send that text. So yes, no clear attempt at sexually assaulting the girls, but the amount of effort he went to… Doesn’t give me the feeling that this was only about a good night’s rest.
That said, I’d prefer the girls safe over him getting more time in prison any day of the week.
100% the guy is an irresponsible creep with terrible judgment and should never be allowed around a kid again.
But as far as any evidence and testimony provides, that’s as far as it goes and we do not need inaccurate, alarmist commentary to emphasize how wrong what he actually did was.
If someone punches somebody else, and then a third party screams about how that bastard murderer killed a guy, then it turns out he didn’t kill anyone, it ultimately discredits the actual story.
I feel like dude can come back from this if he only did it cause he was fed up with their shit and wanted them to go to sleep. That’s just a really dumb mistake. The headline immediately makes you think rapey stuff might have gone on (or been the motive).
No. Do not fucking downplay drugging children. You should delete your comment, it’s entirely unacceptable to drug your own children without their knowledge, let alone other children sleeping at your house. It’s not just a dumb mistake, holy shit do you have a bad take here.
… because rapey stuff seemed to start happening and may have continued if one of the girls didn’t text someone?
dude was checking them for consciousness, something unnecessary if he only wanted them to sleep.
if he was checking them to ensure they were alive, then he deserves a serious ass prison sentence as well, because he then clearly understood how risky what he was doing was.
so … yeah, as far as I am concerned this guy seems like prison is the right answer.
Could go either way as he dosed preteen children with fucking benzos.
I figured it was something like melatonin and the punishment might have been excessive, but nope.
Intentions aside, that’s just really unsafe.
Although now I’m curious if was at least measuring out the dose for each drink, or just tossing some undissolved pills in the blender and hoping it distributes evenly.
Edit: Holy shit does that AP article leave out some details. This guy was definitely looking to abuse the kids
Yeah, sure looks like it:
Investigators saw the text the girl sent a family friend. The girl’s message said Meyden “kept moving us away from each other but kept doing tests to make sure we weren’t awake,” according to the affidavit. She texted that one of the girls “won’t wake up,” the filing states.
The court record says the girl saw Meyden return to the basement a third time and he “seemed drunk.”
The only reason we know about it is because one of the girls didn’t drink the drug laced smoothies. The others that did were “groggy or blacked out” through the next day.
Why benzos? I feel like he would have not raised suspicion or gotten in the same trouble if he’d just let the girls eat some melatonin gummies or something. Wouldn’t even need to be sketchy about it.
So “drug them”, just not as hard?
C’mon man, these are kids. They’re not even all his kids. It’s a sleepover. They stay up late or even to the wee hours of the morning and make noise, watch movies, whatever. That’s what you do as a kid on a sleepover. Giving them any substance to try to make them sleep is a ridiculous idea on multiple levels.
Melatonin gummies? Those count as “drugs”? I thought they were considered supplements like vitamins and stuff.
You can’t give people unexpected things in their food. I think in your hypothetical case intent is the issue. The intent is to give a substance to a person in order to have an effect on that person who is unaware of it, and if that person can claim harm, you’re in deep shit.
It’s no different than putting a natural laxative or 6 million scoville hot sauce in your lunch trying to trap an office lunch thief. None of them are drugs, and in that (hypothetical) situation one would think the bastard deserves it, but legally you’d lose if they reported harm from it because you knew it was possibly going to be stolen and the intent was to have negative effect on the thief. The only grey area would be if you said you like the food spicy, but two edged sword - the judge could make you eat it to prove it.
Anyway, off on a tangent, there. Point is if you adulterate food with the intent to have an effect on someone unaware of the change to the food chances are you’re toast if they say it harmed them. In the article the guy did it to kids, kids that weren’t his, and that’s fucked up.
If it was just about sleep he wouldn’t be facing any serious time. This was attempted rape.
Could you point out where it says that? I’m not trying to defend this guy in any way shape or form, but I’m not into hysteria and making things up, either. Even the most sensational report only offered the opinion that you don’t touch kids unless you have bad intent. And that’s an opinion, not a statement of the perp’s actual intent. Dude f’d up bad, but it doesn’t mean he’s instantly a molester.
why benzos
Of course it was Lake Oswego.
Lake O is the rich Portland suburb, and this is such a stupid rich white man crime.
No? No elaboration? Afraid to say the quiet parts? Ok I’ll say them for you.
This line of thinking is disgusting. You’re saying that because these girls will* partake in drugs and other “uncouth” behavior in the future, them getting it now isn’t a big deal.
Just in case anyone couldn’t read between the lines. If we’re going to be gross, let’s just cut the pretenses and just say it, eh?
*Nevermind that you know nothing about these kids now, let alone their futures.