An Oregon man who gave his daughter and her friends fruit smoothies laced with sleeping pills to help them fall asleep during a sleepover has been sentenced to two years in prison.
Michael Maiden, 57, of Lake Oswego, a Portland suburb, apologized during his sentencing Monday after pleading guilty to three felony counts of causing another person to ingest a controlled substance, according to The Oregonian.
Oregon father accused of spitting drugs into daughter’s smoothie during sleepover, divorced weeks after incident
“My life has been completely destroyed,” he told the court. “Everything that was important to me up until that moment is gone.”
Michael Maiden (left), who is accused of administering drugs to his daughter’s friends at a sleepover in 2023, appeared in Clackamas County Circuit Court in Oregon City, Oregon, on Monday, June 10, 2024. (Dave Killen/The Oregonian via The Associated Press)
Maiden said she planned a fun sleepover for her then-12-year-old daughter and three of her friends last summer, but the girls didn’t go to bed by 11 p.m. as she had hoped. Maiden wanted her daughters to be well-rested for the next day, but she also wanted them to go to bed so she could sleep.
Authorities say Maiden mixed sleeping pills into fruit smoothies. Two of the friends drank the smoothies and eventually lost consciousness. The third girl did not want a drink and texted a family friend after seeing Maiden return to check if the girls were asleep. Maiden moved one girl’s arm and the other’s body and put his finger under one girl’s nose to see if she was asleep.
A family friend picked up the girl and woke her parents, who then contacted the other girls’ families.
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The girls tested positive for benzodiazepines, used to treat insomnia and anxiety, at a local hospital, as did Maiden’s daughter, prosecutors said.
“No decent parent would drug their child or their child’s friends,” one of the girls’ mothers told Maiden during the sentencing. “No decent parent would go and check if their child is unconscious. No decent parent would innocently drug and lay hands on a girl who is unconscious.”
