Portland, OR: The Oregon man who is accused of giving his daughter’s friends drug-laced mango drinks was strangely interested in his coworkers’ kids.
People at Avangrid, a business that makes renewable energy, knew Michael Meyden as a friendly and happy person. But now, one of his former coworkers is questioning his motives.
Someone who worked with him for about two years, until 2021, told The Post, “He always wanted to know about our families.”
“He would inquire about my children, including their ages and the activities they enjoyed outside of school.” Afterward, he would explain what his kids were doing. When it happened, it looked really harmless.
But his coworker says that he was interested outside of work hours as well. That one coworker would like her daughter’s cheerleading pictures on Facebook, she remembers.
“He knew the names and ages of my kids and would ask me about her.” He kept that information. I believed he was truthful.
Several charges have been brought against Meyden, 57, because of a sleepover that happened at his $1.2 million house in Lake Oswego, Oregon, on August 26, 2018.
According to an affidavit of probable cause that The Post received, Meyden gave three of his daughter’s 12-year-old friends mango smoothies that were spiked with benzodiazepine, a drug that slows down the nervous system.
From what the statement says, two of the girls fell into a “thick, deep sleep.” A third girl texted her parents and friends quickly, pleading for help.
At 3 a.m., the parents of all the girls soon showed up at the house. The girls needed help walking the next day and couldn’t remember what happened the night before, so their parents took them to the hospital. One of the girls told cops she “blacked out” after drinking two smoothies, according to the affidavit.
On later investigation, the Lake Oswego Police Department said that Meyden “was responsible for the drugs detected in the girls’ bloodstreams.”
Meyden is being charged with two felonies: giving someone a controlled substance to ingest and putting a controlled drug on someone else’s body.
Authorities haven’t said what they think Meyden’s reason was. He told the judge he was not guilty and is now free on a $50,000 bond.
According to a divorce ruling that The Post got, Meyden and his wife split up in October, less than two months after the shooting. People who know Meyden well told The Post that he has no touch with his children while he is hiding in Vancouver, Washington.
There is no mention of Meyden’s two children as victims in the court papers.
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