A young girl urgently requested her mother to pick her up from a friend’s residence following an unsettling incident where she was drugged by the friend’s father during a sleepover. Michael Meyden secretly added a sedative to mango smoothies he prepared for his daughter and her companions.
The 58-year-old confessed to tampering with the smoothies by spiking them with Temazepam, a prescription sleep aid. Despite the father’s insistence on consuming the smoothies, one child refrained from drinking it and persistently contacted her family for assistance.
Frantic messages, including pleas for help and citing a family emergency, were sent by the distressed child to her mother in the early hours of the morning. Subsequently, she was retrieved by a family friend and taken home, while the other two friends were also brought to the hospital by the girl’s parents.
Upon medical examination, the two other girls tested positive for benzodiazepine, with one of them exhibiting symptoms of drowsiness and clumsiness after consuming the spiked smoothie. An unsettling account revealed that Meyden had entered the basement where the children were sleeping and allegedly manipulated one of the girls while she pretended to be asleep.
During the sentencing hearing, a victim expressed the traumatic impact of the incident, condemning Meyden’s actions and labeling him as a “monster.” Another victim referred to him as a “rotten old man.” Court records indicated that Meyden reached a settlement in a civil lawsuit filed by one of the victims’ fathers, although the specific settlement amount remained undisclosed.
The civil lawsuit, filed in November 2024, sought damages of $2.4 million for emotional distress, negligence, and battery. Earlier in the year, Meyden pleaded guilty to felony charges related to the drugging incident and was sentenced to two years in prison by Circuit Court Judge Ann Lininger in June 2024.