The preteen victims of an Oregon dad who allegedly fed them drug-laced mango smoothies at a slumber party are still “off the charts” traumatized by the incident, a relative revealed to The Post.
Michael Meyden, 57, faces multiple charges stemming from the Aug. 26 sleepover last year at his $1.3 million home in Lake Oswego, Oregon.
“It’s a lot to process,” says a close relative of one of the three 12-year-old victims, whose identities are being protected by authorities. “There’s been a lot of therapy, a lot of nightmares. These girls were traumatized by this man.”
One of the three girls who drank the smoothies — which police say were laced with benzodiazepine, a depressant that slows the nervous system — managed to raise the alarm, bringing parents dashing to the scene.
“These girls might have to face him in court someday, which is terrifying,” the relative, who didn’t want be identified to protect their family member, continued. “The level of trauma is off the charts.”
Meyden historically arranged most of his daughter’s playdates, court documents allege. Friends say he claimed his wife, Yukiko Ishida, was unable to coordinate things because her primary language was Japanese.
However, Ishida is a language teacher who has taught English to students in Japan, has a degree from University of Southern California and has taught students at local school.
“It wasn’t weird that he set things up, because [Ishida] had always been around,” says the girl’s relative. “No one would have let the girls go if we thought that he’d be alone with them.”
According to a probable cause affidavit obtained by The Post, after Meyden served the mango smoothies, two girls allegedly fell into a “thick, deep sleep.” A third girl frantically texted her parents and friends, after she began to feel weird, pleading for someone to rescue her from the terrifying sleepover.
According to court documents, the girl says Meyden put his hands under the unconscious girls’ noses to ensure that they were asleep. When he briefly went upstairs, she pulled out her phone and begged for help.
“Mom please pick me up and say had family emergency,” she texted, according to court documents. “I don’t feel safe. might not respond but please come get me (crying emoji), Please. Please pick up. Please. PLEASE!”
Once the alarm was raised, parents of all the girls descended on the home at 3 a.m. The following day, the alleged victims were taken to the hospital after they required help walking and couldn’t recall what happened to them. One girl told police she “blacked out” after drinking two smoothies, the affidavit alleges.
According to a statement from the Lake Oswego Police Department, officers later determined Meyden “was responsible for the drugs detected in the girls’ bloodstreams.”
Meyden faces felony charges of causing another person to ingest a controlled substance and application of a controlled substance to the body of another person.
Police have not speculated on Meyden’s motive. He has pleaded not guilty and is free on $50,000 bond.
Meyden was an unemployed HR director at the time of the incident. He has since sold his house and is living in an RV park in Vancouver, Washington, according to sources.
He and his wife divorced last October less than two months after the incident, according to a divorce judgment obtained by The Post. Meyden has no contact with his children, sources added.
Neither of Meyden’s two children have been named as victims in the court documents.
Meyden’s attorney Mark Cogan did not return The Post’s request for comment, but previously told The Oregonian his client “is presumed innocent, and we hope that people will reserve judgment until all of the facts and circumstances are known.”
Meyden is due in court again next month.
