I thought nothing could top the horror I felt upon reading initial reports of Michael Meyden drugging the drinks of teenage girls in Lake Oswego, Ore., — prior to his move to Vancouver while awaiting trial — while hosting a sleepover for his daughter’s friends (“Oregon man who drugged daughter’s friends with insomnia medication at sleepover gets prison term,” Associated Press, June 11).
But then I read about the state-sponsored indignities heaped further upon these young women by the judicial system in Clackamas County, Ore., where prosecutors negotiated, and the judge enforced, a plea deal that resulted in the perpetrator receiving an outrageously paltry two years in prison — with no apparent enhancements or offender designations included.
My sense of revulsion increased exponentially.
Women, parents, hiring managers, members of law enforcement, any upright and moral members of society: never take your eyes off this man. Never allow him to move unobserved among our children.
Finally: strength and courage to the young women who saved themselves from further trauma. That the success of their efforts was rewarded by the judicial system with what I can only characterize as nonchalance is a crushing disappointment, but I am awed by their character and by the righteousness of their anger.
