Law&Crime Sidebar - 10 Disturbing Details of Dad Who Allegedly Drugged Daughter's Friend's Smoothies

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Starting point is 00:00:35 will keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series. Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. An Oregon man stands accused of drugging the smoothies his daughter's young friends were drinking during a sleepover. And now some of his former co-workers say this isn't the first time he's shown potentially creepy behavior. We're discussing the criminal charges, the disturbing details from an affidavit, and more with acclaimed personal injury and sex abuse attorney, David Rang. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law and Crime. I'm Jesse Weber. Hey there, everybody. This is a law and crime legal alert and a law and crime YouTube

Starting point is 00:01:23 takeover. Google Incognito tracked users browsing data without their knowledge. Well, Mass Tort Alliance, one of our legal sponsors, is helping users file for compensation due to Google misleading the privacy of their incognito browser. So if you've used Google Incognito any time since 2016, you can start your claim in less than 10 questions. Just go to Incognito Claims.com slash LC takeover. 57-year-old Michael Maiden has been out of jail on $50,000 bail in Oregon since March when he was charged with multiple felonings. What am I talking about? Well, prosecutors accuse Maiden of making mango smoothies for his pre-teen daughter's friends during a sleepover and spiking those drinks with benzodiazepines.

Starting point is 00:02:11 We're going to get into the exact details from a very disturbing affidavit in just a moment. And I want to warn all of you, there's no other way to say it. It's going to make your skin crawl one I'm about to get into, but I prefaced it. So Maiden was reportedly a human resources manager for an energy company in Lake Uswego, Oregon. And a former coworker says that when they look back on it, some of Maiden's questions about their lives maybe seem a little creepy. One male colleague told the Daily Mail in New York Post, he always wanted to know about our families. He'd ask about my kids, how old they are, what extracurriculars they like. Then he'd tell me what his kids were up to. It seemed really

Starting point is 00:02:47 innocent at the time. That same co-worker says that Maiden started liking his daughter's cheerleading photos on Facebook. He would ask questions about her. He knew my kids' names and ages. He kept track of that stuff. I thought he was just being nice. But after Maiden was arrested in March and the affidavit was made public, things took a very sinister turn. For that, let me bring on David Ring, acclaimed personal injury and sex abuse attorney, David, good to see you. Thanks for coming on. We're about to go on a journey together as we go through this affidavit. Are you ready to do this? I'm ready, Jesse. All right, let's get into it. So the document states that around 7 a.m. on Saturday, August 26th, two officers were dispatched to the report of three 12-year-old

Starting point is 00:03:32 female juveniles at Randall Children's Hospital in Portland. They tested presumptive positive for benzodiazepine during a urine screen. The report was made by the emergency room charge nurse. The juveniles reported that they had attended a sleepover at their friends' home on the evening of Friday, August 25th, 2023, where they believed they had unknowingly been given drugs by their friend's father, Michael Maiden. Let's start right there, David. What's your initial take? Unbelievable. But clearly, this guy is a predator. And for those that you don't know, this drug, it's commonly referred to as benzos, right? And it's Valium, Xanax. This is the type of drug that if you take too much of it, it puts you into a deep, deep, deep sleep and knock you

Starting point is 00:04:19 unconscious. And clearly this guy had a plan to have these girls rendered unconscious so he could do something terrible to them. I'm going to get back to that because I'm not entirely clear what the plan was, if any. And to be clear, he's not charged with any sex crimes, right? He's only charged, and we'll get into the exact charges, but he's only charged with allegedly drugging these girls. But let's continue on. So the officer who wrote up this affidavit for the court did interviews with the girls and the parents. Quote, during these interviews, I learned none of the parties were particularly close with the Maiden family or had been inside of their home. The girls had attended the same school and a bit acquainted there.

Starting point is 00:04:55 All the parents stated they communicated with Mr. Maiden regarding the sleepover. I learned Mr. Maiden is responsible for arranging most of his daughter's play date arrangements as his wife's primary language is Japanese. The girls described Mr. Maiden to be very involved with their activities during the sleepover. Mr. Maiden has taken them to get their nails done, pick up a pizza for dinner, and directed their activities. The girls explained Mr. Maiden was constantly checking in on them and interjecting himself into their conversations. The girls stated they played in the sprinklers, went in the hot tub, took showers, and got ready for bed at Mr. Maiden's direction. The girls stated they

Starting point is 00:05:37 spent the majority of their time in the basement where they were doing a spa night watching movies while they did facials. David, what do you think? Look, I mean, that can be taken two different ways, okay? So the way it's written in the affidavit, it comes across as highly suspicious. But look, there's plenty of dads out there that, you know, have sleepovers for their daughters and the girls come over and the dads, these are 12-year-old girls. The dad or the mom are supervising them. So taken at its face, okay, I mean, I don't see anything wildly unusual there. I think we need to get more into it to see what's going on. Okay. just from what you've said there, that can be read two different ways. Let's not indict

Starting point is 00:06:23 every dad who has a sleepover at his house just yet. Okay, fair enough. And remember, he is not charged with anything, no sexual-related crimes, not touching them, anything like that. Okay, so let's be clear. But let's continue on. So according to the girls, and of course, you know, you have to say with any kind of witness, there's, there could, and David, before I even get to it to it, with any kind of witness, right, there could be credibility issues, no matter how old or how young they are, right? So as we go through this, it goes on. Before they were instructed to go to bed, Mr. Maiden prepared a series of mango smoothies with orange and coconut flavors for them to drink. Mr. Maiden insisted they drink them.

Starting point is 00:06:56 The girls were each served two smoothies in glass milkshake-style glasses. The smoothies were described as dull orange in color with tiny white chunks throughout and sprinkled on top. The smoothie's consistency was described as having a thinner liquid with bubbles in it. Mr. Maiden specifically gave each of the girl's specific colored reusable straws to distinguish. distinguish their own a drink. Mr. Maiden was adamant that the girls drink out of their own cups. Now, the names, of course, are redacted here, but it says, quote, one victim reported she drank two entire cups of the orange-colored smoothie using a hot pink reusable straw. Another stated she drank one cup of the orange-colored smoothie using an orange reusable straw. And then the third

Starting point is 00:07:40 stated she did not like smoothies and merely sipped out of a green or blue straw to be nice and barely drank any at all. The third victim stated Mr. Maiden encouraged her to try to drink and even made her a second smoothie and encouraged her to drink it, but she did not. She also said Mr. Maiden accused the third victim and another victim of switching straws between their first and second cup, and this upset him. The fourth girl recalled drinking a significant amount of the smoothie, but didn't know how much. That to me, David, it seems a little suspicious. We've now crossed the line, Jesse.

Starting point is 00:08:16 Now, now things are getting strange and weird because now you have a dad who's injected himself, and it sounds to me, by the reading of that, that he's basically pressuring these 12-year-old girls and forcing them to drink these smoothies. Now, that's weird, that's creepy, red flag alert, right? Yeah. Well, here's the thing.

Starting point is 00:08:37 If you thought this was already concerning enough, a man paying really close attention to the girls, insisting they drink these smoothies, getting upset. If one of them didn't follow the rules, it actually gets worse because the 12-year-olds, they go to sleep around midnight. Two girls on the pull-out couch in the basement, two in a bed in the back bedroom.

Starting point is 00:08:55 One of the victims explained that she and another victim were laying the same direction and her arm was over that girl's body. And she stayed at some point. Mr. Maiden came downstairs and she pretended to be asleep. She stated that he removed her arm from the other girl's body and then separated them by moving the other girl's body further towards the opposite side of the bed. And this concerned the victim so much that she rolled over and placed her arm on the other girl and she remained awake and feared that Mr. Maiden was going to do something to her.

Starting point is 00:09:31 She stated that Mr. Maiden went upstairs. She stated she remained awake and sometime after Mr. Maiden returned downstairs to check on them again. So the victim stated that the second time Mr. Maiden came downstairs, he returned to the pull-out couch, she stated he removed her hand again from the other girl. She said she saw Mr. Maiden in the dim light place his finger underneath her nose, as if to see if she was soundly asleep. He then waved his hand in front of her face. She stated she pretended to be asleep, and shortly after he walked toward the sliding glass door and went outside into the backyard, the victim said she was scared and began to text and call her pants. parents repeatedly. Now, the officer in the affidavit says,

Starting point is 00:10:12 I observed a series of text messages from the victim to her mother at 143 a.m. 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. She was crying and then used the crying emoji. Please, please pick up. Please, please. The victim called and texted several friends requesting a ride.

Starting point is 00:10:33 David, what is going on? There is a lot to unpack there, Jesse. But look, I mean, the first thing that strikes me is this young girl, what a heroine. I mean, to have the courage to realize something is wrong and to text her parents and to make it crystal clear that she needed to get out of there and was persistent about it. There's not a lot of kids that would do that. You know, adults have great, great sway over young kids, especially, you know, if they're the parent of one of your friends. and most kids are just going to assume that they have good intentions and they would just go along with it. So for this girl to realize how suspicious and creepy and wrong what this guy's actions were, good for her.

Starting point is 00:11:22 And clearly, this predator, he had a plan. We'll get to it, I'm sure. But he had a plan. He's going down there twice to see if they're asleep. Let's talk about that. Again, he hasn't been charged with touching the girls, any sex crimes. he's only been charged with drugging them. I mean, I say only charged.

Starting point is 00:11:39 I mean, that's pretty serious set of felonies. But I don't understand what was going on here, what the motive would be to do this. What's your take? And again, it's pure speculation at this point because we just don't know. Well, I don't think it's pure speculation. I mean, I think I've been around enough cases that this guy had a plan. And his plan was to render these girls essentially unconscious and sexually, one of them. That's what I think was going on. And thank God he didn't do that. He didn't get away

Starting point is 00:12:12 with it. Therefore, no charges for sexual assault. And he went outside. And he went outside at one point and then came back in. It's such a weird situation. It's weird, but clearly he had some plan to take advantage of them in an unconscious state. And what could that possibly be? What's the plan? I mean, And the only one that leaps to my mind is he's going to sexually assault one of the girls in some way. But you wouldn't be able to charge that without more, right? Without more, you wouldn't be able to prove that. Exactly, because he didn't get away with it. Thank God.

Starting point is 00:12:45 He didn't get away with it. You know, he didn't, this girl was able to put an end to it before he got that far. But the charges that he is, the counties he's charged with are very, very serious. They're felonies and he's going to go to prison for a while. Let's, we'll get to that in a second. to continue on with the affidavit, what happened next. So she stated, this victim, Mr. Maiden, returned from the sliding glass door, stood near the headboard for what she thought was 15 minutes.

Starting point is 00:13:11 She stated she could feel him watching her by his presence as she kept her eyes shut, pretending to be asleep. She said, when he finally went upstairs, she continued trying to get a hold of anyone she could to pick her up. The girl did manage to get a hold of a family friend, explained what was happening, so the friend agreed to come get her. And get this, according to the affidavit, the pre-trial. says that Maiden came down to the basement a third time.

Starting point is 00:13:35 He went into the bathroom and she said this bathroom had an adjoining door to the bedroom that the other two girls were in and she was concerned for the other two girls in the bedroom. So the victim states when she received a text message that the family friend was outside, Mr. Maiden came out of the bathroom. The victim stated she immediately told him she had a family emergency and she was being picked up. She stated Mr. Maiden seemed drunk and explained he murmured. and slurred his response. He did not prevent her from leaving.

Starting point is 00:14:05 She stated that she went into the garage to retrieve her shoes using a very loud door. She said she was concerned when the other girls didn't wake up. That's why she apparently slammed the door. So when the 12-year-old got home, she woke up her parents from the redaction. It's difficult to tell exactly what's going on. But they're trying to call the parents of the other girls, and at least two of the other parents were unable to be reached. So they headed to Maiden's house around 3 a.m.

Starting point is 00:14:29 The affidavit says that a mother, appears to be a mother, knocked on the door, was met by Mr. Maiden. She explained to him. She was there to take the girls home. He replied, I don't understand. Mr. Maiden stated he would go check on the girls. The mother stood at the front door while Mr. Maiden went back into the house. And after a few minutes, he returned, stated the girls were asleep, insisted she come back in the morning. Fortunately, they were able to convince Maiden to show them where the girls were sleeping.

Starting point is 00:14:56 They woke up the two remaining guests, apparently leaving Maiden's daughter there in the home. David, your reaction to that next part. Well, okay, a couple of reactions. One, again, great job by these parents who believe their daughter, who didn't just go, oh, come on, you're, you're exaggerating. There's no way this guy did anything like that. The other girls are fine. They believed her, and they actually did something about it. They went over there and demanded that these other girls be.

Starting point is 00:15:26 be, you know, be taken out of the house so they can take them to their parents. Great job. My other reaction to that is, where's Mrs. Maid in this whole time? Where's the wife? Where is she involved in all this? How does he get away with all of this going on with people knocking on his door with a girl slamming the door to leave? Where's the wife and all of this?

Starting point is 00:15:49 That's, that's an eyebrow razor to me. It's a fair question. Maybe we'll get some more answers on that one. But continuing on with this affidavit, so the officer apparently interviewed another of the girls around noon on Saturday, so that's about 12 hours after she drank the smoothies. And the affidavit states that she walks slowly, used the assistance of her mother for balance. Her eyelids were heavy. She spoke slowly. She recalled starting to feel woozy, hot, clumsy shortly after drinking that second smoothie.

Starting point is 00:16:19 She couldn't recall what occurred upon blacking out, but the victim shared that she went into a thick, deep sleep that she had never experienced before. The officer states, based on my interviews of parents and juveniles, I know that none of the juveniles are prescribed have access to or experiment with recreational drugs and benzodiazepines. I have probable cause and believe it to be true, Mr. Maiden surreptitiously provided and is responsible for the benzodiazepines found in the juvenile's body. He has been charged with three felony counts of causing another person to ingest a controlled substance, three felony counts of applying a schedule for controlled substance to the body

Starting point is 00:16:54 of a minor, and three misdemeanor counts of delivering to a minor a schedule for controlled substance. Now, the affidavit doesn't mention where Maiden's wife was during all of this. We do know that she and Maiden were divorced within a couple of months of this incident, but before an arrest, he's due back in court next month. Talk to me about these charges and talk to me about if there's any kind of defense, innocent explanation for this. because it seems pretty clear that they had these substances in their body. If you take what the officer said, there's nothing to suggest they were prescribed it, that they were abusing this on their own.

Starting point is 00:17:30 The only way to get this into their systems was through the shakes, through the smoothies. Is there any kind of defense? Is there any kind of innocent explanation for this to these really serious charges? I don't see any defense to that. Look, these are very, very powerful drugs. I mean, let's assume it's Valium or Xanax. That's basically what we're talking about when we talk. about benzos and obviously those are prescribed and you're supposed to take low dosage of those.

Starting point is 00:17:56 So if he is mixing that up into a smoothie and he's putting several of those pills in each smoothie, that's going to have the exact effect that that girl described, where she basically is in the deepest sleep of her life and is in a trance and feels like she's unconscious and has difficulty moving. And so it seems crystal clear that the way that these girls were given those benzos was through the smoothies and who was the person directing them to drink the smoothies and had them all separated out with colored straws, the perpetrator, this dad. I mean, he clearly had a plan to get them to knock them unconscious. If, first of all, how serious are these charges?

Starting point is 00:18:40 What are we looking at in terms of potential punishment if you know? And is this a type of case where he would ultimately take a deal? would a deal look like? These are very serious charges. I mean, it's a weird name, you know, causing another person to ingest a controlled substance, but that's a technical legal name. But the bottom line is those are serious felonies. And he's charged with several of them. And so he's facing, you know, significant jail or prison time for these. And look, I think if he rolled the dice and somehow went to trial and offered up some sort of lame explanation of his role, in all of this. I don't see anybody buying his story. And the outrage factor, any parent out there,

Starting point is 00:19:24 any person out there who hears this, just like you and I have the same reaction. It's just pure outrage. And they are going to throw the book at this guy to make sure he is off the streets and in prison where he belongs. Well, listen, I don't know what could have happened next. I don't even want to imagine what could have happened next. All I know is, I agree with you, brave actions from that girl to do that. This is a horrifying case. It's even difficult for me to go through that affidavit,

Starting point is 00:19:52 some of the more creepy details I've heard in quite some time. David Ring, thanks so much for coming on, giving your perspective. Really appreciate it. I wish it was a different kind of case we were talking about,

Starting point is 00:20:02 but yeah, really appreciate your perspective nonetheless, sir. All right. Thank you, Jesse. And that is all we have for you here on Sidebar. Everybody, thank you so much for joining us. As always, please subscribe on Apple Podcast, Spotify, YouTube,

Starting point is 00:20:15 wherever you get your podcast, I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak to you next time.

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Law&Crime Sidebar - 10 Disturbing Details of Dad Who Allegedly Drugged Daughter's Friend's Smoothies

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