D'oh!

[crank47]

A man was arrested after an HBO documentary showed him encouraging his teenage children to take drugs.

Scott Meyers, 43, who was featured on the April 28 program "Small Town Ecstasy," using drugs with his children and going to raves, was scheduled to be arraigned Friday on child-endangerment charges, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

"It's pretty poor parenting," says Calaveras County District Attorney Jeffrey Tuttle.

Calaveras County Sheriff's Capt. Michael Walker agreed, saying the community was outraged by what it saw in the HBO special.

"The community can't understand how a father could become involved in that," he says.

Meyers was arrested on a warrant signed by a Sacramento County judge and appeared before Superior Court Judge Jane Ure Friday on two charges of felony child endangerment. He is being held at Sacramento County Jail in lieu of $50,000 bail.

Meyers could also face additional charges for allegedly furnishing alcohol to minors, say authorities.

Footage in the documentary of a drug party at the Sacramento home of Meyers' grown son launched a joint investigation by Sacramento police and Calaveras County sheriff's officials after it aired on HBO. Investigators had tried to obtain raw footage (taped two years ago) before the program aired, Walker adds, but were unsuccessful, so they watched the program like everybody else.

At the party, Meyers is seen with his children and their school-age friends drinking alcohol, smoking marijuana, snorting cocaine and "rolling" and "chilling" on ecstasy pills. At one point, Meyers gives his 13-year-old son, Sam, cash to buy drugs, prompting the 18-year-old son to tell his father, "That was a dumb idea." Meyers' 15-year-old daughter, Heather, is also shown using drugs.

Meyers, the son of a retired Calaveras County minister, is featured at the beginning of the documentary going through a midlife crisis after divorcing his wife. He takes ecstasy for the first time and then begins using it frequently, later he starts dying his hair, giving wild kisses to strangers and saying "Whaddup, dog?" to people half his age. Before turning 40, he had never even tasted hard liquor. Near the end of the film, Meyers is shown laughing and saying, "I'm not going to get in trouble for this, am I?"

Calaveras officials believe HBO acted inappropriately by failing to contact police when they saw footage of Meyers' children using drugs.

"I think, pretty clearly, that what happened was not right, and basically they were filming it to make money. That sticks in my craw," says District Attorney Tuttle.

Meyers' ex-wife, Sheryl Mettler, now has custody of the underage children.

[merkie]

I watched the beginning of the documentary and had to leave the room half way through. It was disgusting to watch this father encourage his young children to take e. The two youngest did not want to try it and he basically talked them into it.

It is one thing to endanger yourself by taking drugs, but to involve your children is even worse. I am not riding a high horse, because I am not innocent, but why would anyone want to encourage their kids to do drugs?

[vicman]

i agree. when dealing with a minor, the parent is the responsible person, if the kids were all over 18, well they are technically adults and can do as they wish.

[pgiddy]

What great parents, I could only wish my parents gave me drugs and money to buy them......instead I had to sell them all through high school.....