Colleagues of the Oregon HR manager accused of drugging his daughter’s teenage friends with spiked smoothies during a sleepover said he had exhibited “creepy” behavior in the past.
Michael Meyden, 57, was released on $50,000 bail in March after being charged with multiple crimes when the 12-year-olds at the hospital tested positive for benzodiazepines.
Now his colleagues are speaking out about Meyden, saying his interest in their children would make them uncomfortable.
A colleague said: ‘He always wanted to know more about our families. He asked about my children, how old they are, what extracurricular activities they liked. Then he told me what his children were up to. It seemed very innocent at the time.’
However, the unnamed colleague began to see the sinister side, with Meyden even going so far as to ‘like’ his daughter’s cheerleading photos on Facebook.
Colleagues of the Oregon HR manager accused of drugging his daughter’s teenage friends with spiked smoothies during a sleepover said he had exhibited ‘creepy’ behavior in the past
Michael Meyden, 57, was released on $50,000 bail in March after being charged with multiple crimes when the 12-year-olds at the hospital tested positive for benzodiazepines. In the photo: Meyden during his wedding in 2008 to his wife Yukiko Ishida. The couple filed for divorce in October
‘He asked questions about her, he knew the names and ages of my children. He kept track of those things. I thought he was just being nice.”
Meyden even had a reputation at his office for being cheerful, jovial and interested in everyone, the newspaper said New York Post.
The stories about Meyden’s behavior in dealing with children have shocked those who knew him. He has pleaded not guilty.
A terrified girl who had refused the smoothies desperately tried to protect her unconscious friends from assault at the party in August, a court has heard.
She sent a series of panicked text messages begging for rescue as Meyden reportedly sniffed around the Lake Oswego, Oregon, home to see if the sedatives had taken effect.
“Mommy please pick me up and tell me I’ve had a family emergency, ‘I don’t feel safe,’” she wrote as Meyden briefly surfaced.
Michael Meyden pictured in the search warrant for his $1.3 million home in Lake Oswego, Oregon, where he allegedly drugged his daughter’s friends
Meyden and his wife Yukiko Ishida-Meyer shared the $1.3 million home in Lake Oswego, but filed for divorce last October and his current address is listed as an RV park in Vancouver
“I may not respond, but please come get me. Please. Please pick up. Please. PLEASE!!’
Meyden’s now-deleted LinkedIn profile identifies him as a graduate of Arizona State University who worked for energy company Avangrid.
He and his wife Yukiko Ishida-Meyer shared the $1.3 million home in Lake Oswego, but filed for divorce last October and his current address is listed as an RV park in Vancouver.
The three girls had accompanied Meyden’s daughter to the ‘spa night’ at his home on August 26.
According to the affidavit, Meyden was “very involved” in the event. He took them to get their nails done and pick up pizza for dinner.
Before going to bed, Meyden allegedly made them each two smoothies and ‘insisted’ that they drink them.
‘Mr. Meyden gave each of the girls specific colored reusable straws to distinguish their own drink,” the probable cause statement alleges.
‘Mr. Meyden was convinced that the girls drank from their own cups.’
Meyden in a photo from his now deleted LinkedIn profile
One girl drank both smoothies and another girl drank one glass, but the third girl said she didn’t like the smoothies and barely drank any of them, police said.
Authorities claim one of the girls said the drinks appeared to contain “little white bits”; was in it and that Meyden’s own daughter appeared to have drunk a significant amount.
The girls then retreated to the basement, where two slept in a bedroom and the others on a pull-out couch.
The only non-drugged girl remained awake and saw Meyden allegedly enter the basement and pull the heavily drugged girl away.
When he disappeared upstairs, the girl pulled her unconscious friend back to her side, and Meyden returned and pulled her away again, the affidavit said.
“He put his finger under the awake girl’s nose, “as if to see if she was sleeping well, then waved his hand in front of her face,” she told police.
As Meyden reportedly retreated, she began calling and texting her parents and was eventually able to reach a family friend, who picked her up and took her to her home.
As word spread, the parents of the other two girls arrived at 3 a.m. to pick up their daughters, but Meyden was reportedly reluctant to let them in, telling them their children were asleep.
The parents took the girls to Randall Children’s Hospital where they tested positive for benzodiazepines, sedatives usually used to calm anxiety or as a sleep aid.
The girl who drank two smoothies told police that shortly after drinking the second one, she started feeling dizzy, hot and clumsy.
She then “blacked out” and fell into a “thick, deep sleep” the likes of which she had never known before, the affidavit said.
Meyden has been charged with three felonies of soliciting another person to ingest a controlled substance, three felonies of placing a schedule IV controlled substance on the body of a minor and three felonies of delivering to a minor a schedule IV controlled substance.
He surrendered to the Clackamas County Jail in March and pleaded not guilty at a hearing Wednesday before being released on $50,000 bail.
The father of two is scheduled to appear in Clackamas County Court again in May
“Mr. Meyden is presumed innocent,” said his attorney Mark Cogan.
‘We haven’t seen the evidence. The indictment was issued by a grand jury behind closed doors where no judge, no attorney, was admitted.
“And we hope that people will postpone judgment until all the facts are known.”
Meyden must appear in court again in May.