Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Dad Who Drugged Daughter's Friends with Smoothies At Sleepover Sued By Teen

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Starting point is 00:01:30 lawsuit and how it could bankrupt him and his ex-wife. Welcome to Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. Michael Maden is being taken to court again, but this time it's civil court. The father of one of the girls he's accused of drugging at his daughter's sleepover has sued him. So his legal troubles are far from over. Just a quick recap about Michael Maiden. He admitted to spiking mango smoothies for friends of his 12 sleepover. Maiden took the girls to get their nails done. He ordered pizza for them and then dictated everything they did once they returned to his home. A search warrant affidavit said that Maiden mixed mango smoothies for the four girls. Each had a different colored straw and Maiden insisted that the girls drink the entire concoction. But one of the girls became suspicious and that's a good thing. She trusted her gut. She described cuddling with one of her

Starting point is 00:02:32 friends as they tried to go to sleep and she said Maiden came to the basement a couple of times and removed her arm from around her friend. One time he actually put his finger under her nose to see if she was sound asleep. The girl was scared to death, rightfully so, and she texted her mom, please pick me up and say I had a family emergency. I don't feel safe. I might not respond, but please come get me. Please, please pick up. Please, please. The girl then texted a family friend when her mom didn't respond. That family friend came to get her and they returned to the home and picked up the rest of the girls. Thank goodness.

Starting point is 00:03:09 Detectives say the girls tested positive for benzodiazepines at the hospital. Those are sedatives that can be used to reduce anxiety, muscle spasms and reduce seizures. When Maiden was out on bail on GPS monitoring, he actually tried to take his own life, but was unsuccessful. He was sentenced to 24 months in prison last June. Now to the civil lawsuit filed by one of the girl's fathers. The complaint brought against Maiden and his now ex-wife, Yukiko Maiden, alleges battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence, and negligent infliction of emotional distress. The plaintiff, who's identified only by initials, wants $2.4 million in damages from the Lake Oswego couple. According to the affidavit, the defendant insisted the plaintiff and the other minor children ingest

Starting point is 00:03:57 the smoothie he prepared, which contained temazepam, a drug prescribed for insomnia due to its sedative effect. The lawsuit alleges that Maiden acted with intent to cause harmful or offensive contact because the plaintiff was entrusted into his care, meaning she was completely reliant on his responsible conduct. Each claim of relief will cover future medical and counseling costs for the girl who is emotionally traumatized by the actions of the defendant, according to the lawsuit. I want to tell you about Upside. It's a free app that gets you cash back on things like gas, groceries, and restaurants. This is real cash back, money that appears in your Upside app that

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Starting point is 00:05:16 distress and trauma upon these teenage girls. His motives are still unclear. One interesting point here, Maiden and his wife divorced quickly after he was charged criminally and his wife received most of their assets, but that might not protect those assets from a civil suit under Oregon law. I want to bring in Dr. Mark LeBeau. He is retired from the FBI. He also owns LeBeau Forensic Toxicology, a consulting firm. So Dr. LeBeau, your first thoughts on looking at this case where we have somebody who's admitting to drugging these young girls. Yeah, it's very disturbing, actually, because we're not really sure what the intent was. Why was he trying to drug these young

Starting point is 00:06:00 women? What was the ultimate goal here? Was it to try to sexually assault them or was it more of an experiment that he was doing to figure out the right dose to knock somebody? There's a lot of detail in this case that is very disturbing. It's the fact that he had these medications at his home at all. And we know that they were probably prescribed for him. We know that one of the medications, or at least temazepam, the one that they found, can be used to treat sleeping disorders. But to put them in a smoothie for a 12-year-old girl, and then he was going down and kind of checking to make sure they were asleep. I mean, these girls could have been, these girls could have died. I mean, I don't want to be dramatic, but it is the truth that

Starting point is 00:06:51 they could have died had they not received proper care. Some of these girls reported some really awful after effects from these drugs after they were taken to the hospital and they received toxicology tests. Yeah, you're absolutely right. Look, benzodiazepines in general, particularly temazepam, is not a medication that you typically would prescribe to a minor. So to take an adult dose, assuming an adult dose of benzodiazepine, and give it to a child where you know nothing about their medical condition, you know nothing about other medications that they may be prescribed and how those medications may interact with the temazepam. It's a risky venture that was taken

Starting point is 00:07:41 here. Michael Maiden has pleaded guilty to the criminal charges. He was sentenced to 24 months in prison. You know, the prosecution in this case had him dead to rights. I mean, this was something that was pleaded out quite quickly after the criminal charges were filed. I mean, there was a lot of consciousness of guilt type evidence here. He tried to take his own life after the charges were filed. He was on GPS monitoring. I mean, there's just so much evidence, damning evidence against him aside from him obviously admitting guilt in this case. So now we're on to the civil case where they're going, the plaintiff is asking for $2.4 million. So somebody such as yourself, how would you be

Starting point is 00:08:26 used in a case such as this, the civil case, to possibly prove damages? Yeah, a forensic toxicologist in a case like this would typically be used to explain the effects that the drugs would have on an individual and the dangers of administering them. You know, it's a classic example of somebody poisoning someone, isn't it? And that's really where a toxicologist would come in to talk about how the drug would potentially affect their well-being and the dosing, the typical dosing you would expect to see for somebody that is an adult and then trying to correlate that to what might be used in a minor. But as I said earlier, this is not a medication that you typically would give to a minor. So

Starting point is 00:09:19 it had the risks associated with it. And you said it's basically a poisoning. What could have happened had these girls not been taken to the hospital? We're not exactly what, we're not sure what kind of treatment they received. We know that they took, you know, they provided urine samples. There was testing given because there was a suspicion that they had been drugged. And these girls were bleary eyed. I mean, red, glassy eyes. They were just out of it once they had been taken out of the house. But, you know, what could have possibly happened? Sure. Well, you know, it's a classic class of drugs that we call a central nervous system depressant. And what most people have experience with in that category is alcohol or maybe even general anesthetics that basically slow down the

Starting point is 00:10:15 brain's normal operation. So with that, you start with things like slurred speech and maybe some loss of inhibitions. But it does cause that sedation, that sleepiness that we talked about. It can also cause amnesia, a particular type of amnesia. It's called anterograde amnesia, which is, you know, we're more familiar with retrograde amnesia where you knew something, maybe your childhood phone number or something like that. You knew it all your life, and then suddenly you have an injury to the brain. Maybe you develop Alzheimer's, or maybe there's an accident with your head on the head.

Starting point is 00:10:54 Suddenly, you can't remember that anymore. But anterobradionasia, which happens with benzodiazepines, means basically while you're under the influence of that particular drug, your memories are not being recorded properly, not being stored properly. So you're unable to recall things during that time that you're under the influence. But more critical is that central nervous system depression that could lead to somebody basically going into a coma. You could even potentially end up having seizures because of the effect that these unprescribed drugs would have on an individual such as a minor. Oh, that is terrifying. So not only could they have gone into a seizure, but you're talking about amnesia where they may have no memory of what happened for that time period that they were under the influence of the medication because of the effect of it.

Starting point is 00:11:55 So something could have happened to the girls and they would never possibly remember it. That's exactly right. Not a permanent amnesia. Yeah, That's exactly right. Not a permanent amnesia. Yeah, that's exactly right. There would be a very good chance that there would be no recollection of it, where they would just have very fragmented memories that would make it really difficult for the investigators to piece together what happened. That is absolutely terrifying. You know, where do you see, you know, I know I'm asking you're a toxicologist, but you've also been in the business, the FBI kind of business for a long time. You've testified in courts many times over the years. You own a consulting business. I mean, does this case almost seem like that slam dunk, but they certainly had good evidence.

Starting point is 00:12:46 And good evidence makes it a little bit easier at times to successfully, you know, prosecute a case. So, you know, the fact that they had evidence of a minor who had not consumed, had not consumed the mango slushy that was prepared, that had been laced with temazepamine, and was a good witness to explain what was going on and how the others were responding to the drugging and what he was doing himself. And then ensuring that the adults were called in and they then, in essence, became other witnesses. The fact that they had evidence of the actual drug that was used, the temazepam. That's not typical in a drug-facilitated crime like this. Many times we're just grasping at straws as to what particular medication was used. It usually comes down to what

Starting point is 00:13:46 was available, but we don't always get that information. So, you know, this had a lot of very positive evidence associated with it that allows you to really put the case together much easier than a typical drug-facilitated crime. And it'll be interesting to see if other plaintiffs involved in this case pursue legal action as well, because this is one of four girls who was present there, and it'll be interesting to see if they follow suit and file lawsuits, no pun intended. Dr. Mark LeBeau, thank you so much for your time. We appreciate it. Thank you. It's my pleasure. I actually spoke earlier this year with Chris Hansen about this case. Take a listen. I just got to be honest with you. I see a lot of this

Starting point is 00:14:36 stuff and I try to approach it somewhat clinically, but also with the outrage and emotion of a parent. I'm a parent. My guys are much older now. But, you know, if I'm the parent of one of these kids, oh my God, I'm going to raise hell about this. And I'm going to be overly protective. And now what has happened, because this predator has acted in this way, none of these girls are going to be allowed to do any of this stuff ever again.

Starting point is 00:15:02 Who's going to take a chance on that? You know, so not only did he victimize them by drugging them, scare them, attempt to assault them, he's altered their future and the way their parents protect them. And they're going to be arguably and understandably overprotected coming in. I mean, just because he didn't actually sexually assault them doesn't mean they've been victimized, traumatized. This is an attack on these young women. Yeah. And this guy needs to be held accountable for it. This is among the worst of a lot of bad predatory cases I've ever seen. But God only knows what would have happened, Chris, had that girl

Starting point is 00:15:40 not texted her parents. Her parents didn't answer, of course, because maybe they were asleep. Well, yeah, it was truly morning. She texted a family friend who's like, I will be right there. Right. Thank God. They go back and they get the other kids and they take them to the ER and they get them tested and they find these drugs in their system. One other thing that's important to note here, in these horrific cases where kids are victimized or preyed upon, oftentimes online and traditional social media platforms, it is this trip to the emergency room and the skilled nurses and first responders in that emergency room who often get to the bottom of this story, this crime, and it leads to successful prosecutions. And that is a critical component

Starting point is 00:16:26 here too, because we've seen this over and over again. We've reported on it for True Blue, and there've been a lot of notorious cases here where law enforcement got the tip from the person at the ER, the nurse or the first responder. And based upon what I've seen in the affidavit, these law enforcement officers are heroes. They did everything right here. And you wish you didn't have to do investigations like this, but sadly you do. And in an earlier time, without the courage to step forward, without a good conversation and relationship between this girl who reported this and her parents, this is way worse. There's an actual physical victimization here beyond what already occurred. Yeah. Think about what could have happened in the world before cell phones,

Starting point is 00:17:19 because that's how the girl got a hold of the family friend. She's texting. She's texting mom and dad, and then she texts the family friend and says, I need to get out of here. I'm not safe. And thank goodness she did that. There is one thing. She saved these other girls too. Yes. And she did. She saved her friends. One thing I think that we can take away from this though, that I think parents can learn from this. They do mention, none of the families were particularly close with the maidens and hadn't been in their home before. So I think that's, you know, they had spoken with Mr. Maiden, but really when you're sending your kids to somebody else's house for a sleepover, it can seem okay, you know, even if you've spoken to them on the phone, but really,

Starting point is 00:18:01 if you're going to leave your children overnight, you really maybe should take that extra step of being in the house, maybe- Talk to the mom, not just the dad. Talk to the mom. Yeah. Exactly. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you back here next time.

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Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Dad Who Drugged Daughter's Friends with Smoothies At Sleepover Sued By Teen

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Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Dad Who Drugged Daughter's Friends with Smoothies At Sleepover Sued By Teen

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